Honeyguide Bird Reading Passage

5th Grade ELAInformational Text3 pages

About this worksheet

The Greater Honeyguide loves beeswax but is too small to break open a bees' nest, so it leads human honey hunters to the hive. This 3-page 5th grade nonfiction sheet describes that partnership in three short paragraphs on the African savanna. Four questions follow: an exact quote on why the bird needs help, the main idea of the second paragraph, a one-sentence summary, and the relationship between the bird and the hunters. It covers RI.5.1, RI.5.2, and RI.5.3, and the last page gives a model answer for each question.

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Honeyguide Bird Reading Passage: Informational Text - page 1
Honeyguide Bird Reading Passage: Informational Text - page 2
Honeyguide Bird Reading Passage: Informational Text - page 3

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Curriculum objectives covered

RI.5.1

“Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.”

Question 1, where the answer quotes "it is too small to break open a tough bees' nest on its own."

RI.5.2

“Determine two or more main ideas of a text and explain how they are supported by key details; summarize the text.”

Question 2's main idea and supporting detail, and the one-sentence summary in Question 3.

RI.5.3

“Explain the relationships or interactions between two or more individuals, events, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text based on specific information in the text.”

Question 4, which asks students to explain how the bird and the hunters interact and how both benefit.

What's inside this worksheet

Read the Text

Three paragraphs cover the problem (the bird cannot open a nest), the bird's chattering call and its flight from tree to tree, and the smoke, the honey, and the beeswax the hunters leave as a reward. It ends by calling the partnership symbiotic.

Analyze the Text

Question 1 needs an exact quote. Question 2 asks for the main idea of the second paragraph and one detail. Question 3 asks for a one-sentence summary. Question 4 asks how the bird and the hunters interact to get what they want.

How teachers use it

Life science link

Use the last sentence to introduce symbiosis. Ask students for another pair of animals, or an animal and a person, that both gain from working together.

Second paragraph

Question 2 is about the paragraph that begins "When a honeyguide finds a bees' nest." Students often give the main idea of the whole text instead, so have them box that paragraph first.

One-sentence limit

Only one sentence is allowed in Question 3. Students who write three have retold the text, so ask which two ideas they would keep.

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Reading ComprehensionWritingGrammar and LanguageVocabulary

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