A five-paragraph reading passage on page 1 of this 4th grade science sheet tells the story of the Mount St. Helens eruption on May 18, 1980. It moves from the earthquakes and the bulge on the north side to the sideways blast, the ash cloud and the return of plants and animals. Pages 2 and 3 hold six questions, four multiple choice and two written. Page 4 is the answer key. It supports Common Core RI.4.1 and RI.4.3.
RI.4.1
“Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.”
Questions 1 to 3 check explicit details and question 4 asks why the author chose a phrase.
RI.4.3
“Explain events, procedures, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text, including what happened and why, based on specific information in the text.”
Question 5 asks for the chain of events from earthquake to landslide to blast.
Five paragraphs with numbers students can find again: a bulge growing about 1.5 meters (5 feet) a day, ash about 24 kilometers (15 miles) high, 57 people who died and about 400 meters (1,300 feet) lost from the top.
Questions 1 to 4 ask for the state, the height of the ash cloud, what caused the bulge and why the author calls the volcano a sleeping giant. Each has four boxed options.
Question 5 asks students to explain how the earthquake and the landslide led to the sideways blast, using paragraph 3. Question 6 asks why scientists still watch the volcano and what the returning plants and animals show. A photo of a smoking volcano sits at the bottom.
Letter answers for questions 1 to 4 and model answers for both written questions.
Pause before the blast
Read paragraphs 2 and 3 aloud and stop before the morning of May 18. Ask students what the bulge might mean, then read on and check.
Underline the numbers
Have students underline every number in the passage. Three of the four options in question 2 reuse numbers from the text, so careless reading costs marks.
After composite volcanoes
Use it after a lesson on volcano types. The first paragraph names Mount St. Helens as a composite volcano, which gives students a real case to attach the term to.
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