Onions Reading Comprehension Passage - Cored Ed Encyclopedia

This onions reading comprehension contains the following:

Visualize on the Cover (Teacher Read Aloud Script)

Start your lesson by taking a few moments to visualize the topic and share thoughts or feelings about it.

Pre-Reading Trivia

Students will write down one thing they already know about the subject and then read five more facts and discuss. These facts are fun, and the students will enjoy learning about the subject before reading more.

Reading Passage

The text is a high-interest reading passage with set paragraphs, roughly three to four paragraphs long. It contains a variety of themes about the topic, anywhere from history to technology. The passage is between 250 and 350 words in length.

Mixed Questions

The first question page contains four multiple-choice questions, each with a choice of four answers, and three written response questions that require a sentence or two from the student.

Vocabulary Questions

Practice seven key words from the text in this section across two activities. First section is scrambled words where students will unscramble three words given a clue for each. The second section is a word to meaning matching activity.

Creative Writing

In this question, the student will be required to write a five to eight sentence paragraph on a question related to the topic.

Extension Activities

This page is optional for fast finishers or to take home. There are several activities, each one requiring a different skill. Do some, do none, do all, completely optional - but you will feel reassured knowing every possibility is planned for. Includes summary writting question.

Answer Key

There are answers for the multiple-choice questions, written response questions have sample answers, vocabulary answers and if there is a summary question then a sample summary will be provided as well.

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Lesson Snapshot

• Title: Onions

• Genre: Nonfiction (informational text)

• Subject: Life Science (plants) / Reading Informational Text

• Primary Topic: Onion bulbs, history, tears, and growing

• Estimated Guided Reading Level (A–Z): Q

What This Lesson Teaches Best

• How an onion bulb is made of layers and helps the plant grow.

• Key plant facts: onions send up hollow leaves, and the bulb swells at the bottom of the stalks.

• A clear cause-and-effect explanation for why cutting onions can make eyes water (chemicals mix → gas → tears).

• A brief history of onions, including early recipes on clay tablets in ancient Mesopotamia and later planting in North America.

• How onions are grown/harvested, including that onions are biennial plants and can be started from sets.

Learning Goals

• Students will identify details that describe what an onion bulb is like and what it does for the plant.

• Students will explain why cutting an onion can make eyes water using information from the text.

• Students will describe one way people long ago saved and replanted onions.

• Students will describe how onions can be grown (from seeds or sets) and when they are often harvested.

• Students will use section headings to locate key information in the passage.

Key Vocabulary From the Text

• biennial — a plant built for a two-year life cycle.

• chemicals — substances that can mix and cause changes.

• Mesopotamia — an ancient place where people wrote on clay tablets.

• colonists — people who settled in a new place long ago.

• sets — small starter onion bulbs used for planting.

Cored Ed Encyclopedia Overview

The Cored Ed Encyclopedia is a weekly series of lessons that you can pick up and use right away. These short readings fit into whatever time you have available. Each one includes a warm-up, a reading, and a set of questions, but it’s flexible — you can do just the reading, the full lesson, or skip the writing section if you need to. Each lesson focuses on a single topic so students don’t get lost. The writing is clear but never childish, making it perfect for grades two through five. Topics range from animals and science to history, inventions, and everyday things. No matter the level of the student, everyone should take away at least one new idea or fact from each lesson. The materials are easy to print, easy to explain, and require no setup. They work well for whole-class teaching, partner work, or independent study.