Contents

Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................ 4

Readability Levels of the Passages ....................................................................................................................... 6

Building Comprehension Skills.............................................................................................................................. 6

Meeting the Common Core State Standards....................................................................................................... 7

The Passages

1 Written by Anonymous .................................... 8 21 The Bear Facts ............................................... 28

2 The Sun and the Wind ..................................... 9 22 Rainforest Medicines ..................................... 29

3 Wanda and Tina .............................................. 10 23 We All Scream for Ice Cream! ..................... 30

4 The Gift ............................................................. 11 24 Baseball Is a Hit in Japan............................. 31

5 Three Friends .................................................. 12 25 She Climbed to the Top ................................. 32

6 How Coyote Won His Dinner ........................ 13 26 The Panama Canal ........................................ 33

7 Marly and the Kite .......................................... 14 27 Helpful Houseplants...................................... 34

8 Rocket Man...................................................... 15 28 Faithfully Ours ................................................ 35

9 Yo-Yos Are Forever ......................................... 16 29 Who Says Ball Games Are for the Birds?.. 36

10 The History of Marbles .................................. 17 30 Long Life .......................................................... 37

11 One Cool-Looking Cowhand ........................ 18 31 Kids Help Pass Safety Laws......................... 38

12 Malik and Me ................................................... 19 32 The Perfect Pet ............................................... 39

13 Color Me Happy! ............................................. 20 33 Presidential Pets ............................................ 40

14 Frozen Treat .................................................... 21 34 Knuckle Cracking ........................................... 41

15 Giving TV the Boot .......................................... 22 35 Why Penguins Wear Tuxedos ....................... 42

16 The Midas Touch ............................................ 23 36 Endurance ....................................................... 43

17 Smokejumpers ............................................... 24 37 Here Comes the...Maildog? ........................ 44

18 Fooled You! ...................................................... 25 38 Old Bones ........................................................ 45

19 The King’s Things ........................................... 26 39 What’s the Word? ........................................... 46

20 The Titanic ....................................................... 27 40 Endangered Animals ..................................... 47

Answer Key ............................................................................................................................................................... 48

Quick Cloze Passages for Boosting Comprehension: Grades 4–6 © 2012 by Scholastic Teaching Resources
 Introduction

W
elcome to Quick Cloze Passages for Boosting Comprehension:
Grades 4–6. The cloze-format reading passages in this book
are designed to help you teach and reinforce vocabulary and
build key reading comprehension and critical thinking skills. Each
engaging, fill-in-the-blank passage offers students opportunities to fill
in missing words from a companion word list. Because students must
interact with the text to fill in the missing words, they become active
participants in the reading process.

About the Cloze Passages Name ______________________________________________ Date ____________________

Passage 11

O Cool
One Cool-Loo
Cool-Looking
l-Looking
k
king
Cowh
Cowhand
hand
d

•
The cowhands of the Old West were pretty
cool characters. Fill in the blanks in this article

Each passage appears on a single page, so that it C

to find out what a cowhand wore.

owhands, another name for cowboys and cowgirls, were important

workers in the Old West. They drove herds of cattle across the plains to
Word List

is easy to reproduce and distribute. The passages railroad stations, where they were loaded on trains and taken to market.
What did they wear, and why?
Cowhands always wore big hats to keep out the dirt and
bandages
bandannas
brush
chaps

progress from lower to higher reading levels. On

shade them from the sun. Cowhands also used their hats to carry signal

Quick Cloze Passages for Boosting Comprehension: Grades 4–6 © 2012 by Scholastic Teaching Resources
water. They tapped their hats to say hello and waved them to
__________________________ happiness.
They wore __________________________ to keep dust out of their mouths.

page 6, you’ll find a listing of Flesch-Kincaid These cloths also came in handy as scarves and __________________________.
Cowhands wore long-sleeved shirts, vests, and jeans. Over their jeans,
cowhands wore leather __________________________ to protect their jeans

readability levels for each. Use these grade level

from the rough country __________________________.
On their feet, cowhands wore tall boots, protecting their feet and shins.
The boots were high enough to keep out dust, dirt, stones, and water. There were
spurs on the backs of the boots. Cowhands used spurs to prod their horses to

scores to match the passages to different students’ “Get a move on!”

Think
About It!
What pieces of clothing did cowhands wear, and why did
they wear them?

abilities. 18

• The high-interest passages comprise both fiction and nonfiction.

They have also been selected to support the following content
area topics: history, science and technology, geography, arts and
entertainment, and sports and games.
Teaching Tips
• Each word list includes all of the word choices students need to
complete the passage, helping them identify vocabulary that might
• Refer to page 7 to see
how the activities in
otherwise be beyond their reach. The target words, like the passages,
progress from easier to more challenging. These words have been
this book align with
the Common Core chosen to build reading skills and stretch students’ vocabulary with
State Standards. words they are likely to encounter in other contexts.

• You can use the • To determine the right word for each blank, students practice key
reading comprehension skills, such as tapping prior knowledge of
activities to assess
students’ progress the topic and using context clues.
and to provide
preparation for • Atpractice
the end of each passage, a Think About It question gives students
in building different reading comprehension skills, such as
standardized tests.
To monitor students’ identifying details, comparing and contrasting, summarizing, and
work, see the answer making inferences. The chart at the bottom of page 6 shows the
key on page 48. skills targeted in the Think About It question for different passages.

4
Quick Cloze Passages for Boosting Comprehension: Grades 4–6 © 2012 by Scholastic Teaching Resources
 Introducing the Cloze Passages
Model for students how to work with the cloze passages by having them
follow these steps:
1. Read the title, introduction, and then the passage. Get a feel for what
it’s about and why it was written. Don’t try to fill in any words yet.
2. Reread the entire passage. Think about the kind of word that might
fit each blank. Look at the other words in the sentence for clues about
the word that is missing.
3. Read through the word list. Look for the words that are closest in
meaning to the words you’re already considering.
4. When you find a match, write it in the blank.
5. When you’ve completed the passage, read it through with your
answers in place to make sure it makes sense.

Ways to Use the Cloze Passages

The cloze passage activities are flexible and easy to use in a variety of ways:

• Small Group: Distribute copies of the same passage to each member

of a small group (4–5 students). Have students read and fill in the
blanks. Then have them trade passages to check each other’s work.
One student can read the completed passage aloud.

• Individual Desk Work While Conferencing: Distribute a passage

to each student to work on while you conference with individual
students about their cloze passages or about other academic subjects.

• Homework: Send copies of passages home for vocabulary

reinforcement and reading practice, and for students to complete with
their families as a school-home connection.

Do More!

• Distribute the cloze passages without the word list. Let students try
to come up with their own vocabulary choices and read their passages
aloud to the class.

• Once students have gotten the hang of cloze passages, you can also
create your own using other classroom materials, such as picture books,
science texts, and social studies passages. Photocopy the passage once
and use correction fluid to create blank spaces. Include a word list of
the missing words in alphabetical order.

5
Quick Cloze Passages for Boosting Comprehension: Grades 4–6 © 2012 by Scholastic Teaching Resources
Readability Levels of the Passages
The chart below indicates the Flesch-Kincaid reading level for each of the passages.
You can use these grade-level scores to determine which passages are appropriate for
the abilities of different students.

1 Written by Anonymous RL 1.5 21 The Bear Facts RL 5.2

2 The Sun and the Wind RL 2.5 22 Rainforest Medicines RL 5.3

3 Wanda and Tina RL 3.1 23 We All Scream for Ice Cream! RL 5.3

4 The Gift RL 3.6 24 Baseball Is a Hit in Japan RL 5.4

5 Three Friends RL 3.7 25 She Climbed to the Top RL 5.6

6 How Coyote Won His Dinner RL 3.8 26 The Panama Canal RL 5.6

7 Marly and the Kite RL 3.9 27 Helpful Houseplants RL 5.6

8 Rocket Man RL 4.1 28 Faithfully Ours RL 5.7

9 Yo-Yos Are Forever RL 4.2 29 Who Says Ball Games Are for the Birds? RL 5.8

10 The History of Marbles RL 4.2 30 Long Life RL 5.9

11 One Cool-Looking Cowhand RL 4.2 31 Kids Help Pass Safety Laws RL 6.3

12 Malik and Me RL 4.2 32 The Perfect Pet RL 6.4

13 Color Me Happy! RL 4.3 33 Presidential Pets RL 6.5

14 Frozen Treat RL 4.6 34 Knuckle Cracking RL 6.6

15 Giving TV the Boot RL 4.6 35 Why Penguins Wear Tuxedos RL 6.7

16 The Midas Touch RL 4.7 36 Endurance RL 6.9

17 Smokejumpers RL 4.7 37 Here Comes the...Maildog? RL 7.1

18 Fooled You! RL 4.7 38 Old Bones RL 7.2

19 The King’s Things RL 4.8 39 What’s the Word? RL 7.2

20 The Titanic RL 5.0 40 Endangered Animals RL 7.4

Building Comprehension Skills

The chart below shows the reading comprehension skill targeted in the Think About It
question for different passages.

Skill Passage # Skill Passage #

Analyze Character 5, 29 Identify Details 9, 22, 37, 40

Recognize Cause & Effect 2, 13, 28, 30, 31, 35 Make Inferences 5, 16, 19, 33, 38, 39

Compare & Contrast 1, 12, 21, 24 Identify Problem & Solution 3, 4, 15, 25, 26

Distinguish Between Understanding Sequence 6, 7, 10, 17, 18, 36

8, 20, 23, 32, 34
Fact & Opinion
Summarize 11, 14, 27

6 Quick Cloze Passages for Boosting Comprehension: Grades 4–6 © 2012 by Scholastic Teaching Resources
 Passage 1
Name ______________________________________________ Date ____________________

The poems that follow were signed “Anonymous,” meaning the

author is unknown. Enjoy the poetry as you fill in the blanks.

The Joke
Word List
The joke you told isn’t funny one bit.
It’s _________________________ and dull, wholly lacking in wit. considering
distracted
It’s so old and stale; it’s beginning to smell!
flaw
Besides, it’s the one I was going to tell.
imprisoned
—Anonymous pointless
The Puzzled Centipede
A centipede was happy quite

Quick Cloze Passages for Boosting Comprehension: Grades 4–6 © 2012 by Scholastic Teaching Resources
Until a frog in fun
Said, “Pray, which leg comes after which?”
This raised her mind to such a pitch,
She lay _________________________ in the ditch
_________________________ how to run.
—Anonymous
A Fly and a Flea in a Flue
A fly and a flea in a flue Think
About It!
Were _________________________, so what could they do?
Said the fly, “Let us flee!”
How are these
“Let us fly!” said the flea, poems alike?
How are they
And they flew through a _________________________ in the flue. different?
—Anonymous
8
 Passage 2
Name ______________________________________________ Date ____________________

Wind can be very powerful, and so can

the sun. According to a legend, the two once
had an argument about who was stronger.
Fill in the blanks in this fable to see who won.

O ne day the sun and the wind had an argument. The wind Word List
_________________________ that he was stronger than the sun.
claimed
“Wrong,” replied the sun. “I am stronger than you.”
disagreeing
As they were _________________________, a woman came gentleness

down the road, wearing a heavy woolen coat. unbuttoned

wrapped
“Here’s how we can decide who is stronger,” shouted the wind.
Quick Cloze Passages for Boosting Comprehension: Grades 4–6 © 2012 by Scholastic Teaching Resources

“See that woman. Let’s see which of us can remove her coat.”
“Good idea,” the sun replied. “You go first.” So the wind started to blow.
He blew and blew, as hard as he could. Trees swayed almost to the ground, but
the woman only _________________________ her coat more tightly around
her.
Now the sun began to shine. She shone down on the woman, until the
woman grew warm and _________________________ her coat. The sun kept
on shining. Soon, the woman removed her coat and laid it over her arm.
“Alas, you win,” said the wind to the sun. “Your
_________________________ has succeeded where my rudeness failed.”

Think
How did the sun get the woman to remove her coat?
About It!

9
 Passage 3
Name ______________________________________________ Date ____________________

What do you do if your best friend suddenly

stops talking to you? Fill in the blanks in
this story to see what one girl does in that
situation.

W anda and Tina had been best friends for years. That’s why Word List
Wanda was so _________________________ one day when
astonished
Tina wouldn’t talk to her. She had saved Tina a seat in the
genuinely
_________________________, but when Tina came in she lunchroom

went off and sat by herself. momentarily

recently
Wanda didn’t know what was wrong. Could Tina be

Quick Cloze Passages for Boosting Comprehension: Grades 4–6 © 2012 by Scholastic Teaching Resources
mad at her? She thought about what she had done and said
_________________________. Was Tina upset because Wanda had done
better on the history test? No, Tina was _________________________
happy that Wanda did well at school.
Wanda decided to find out what was the matter. She walked over to
where Tina was sitting. “Tina,” she said softly, “Is something wrong?”
Tina looked up, _________________________ perplexed. Then
she realized who it was. “Oh, hi, Wanda,” she said. “Yes, something is wrong.
My cat Zorro died yesterday. I’ve been really sad. Thanks for asking. You’re a
true friend.” Wanda sat down next to her friend and gave her a big hug.

Think
How did Wanda solve the problem she was having with Tina?
About It!

10
 Passage 4
Name ______________________________________________ Date ____________________

Sometimes it’s hard to give the perfect gift,

especially when you don’t have much money
to spend. Fill in the blanks to see how one boy
solves this problem.

S am got an email _________________________ from Rosa Word List

to her birthday party. Although, this would normally have made
anxious
him happy, his father had recently lost his job. Sam only had a few
captured
dollars, and it wasn’t a good time to ask his parents for help. invitation

Sam went to work at the library. As he left, he saw a sign tacky

received
Quick Cloze Passages for Boosting Comprehension: Grades 4–6 © 2012 by Scholastic Teaching Resources

for a book sale. Two books _________________________ his

attention. The first was a cookbook of Puerto Rican foods. The
second was about women explorers. Both seemed perfect for
Rosa—but would used books be too _________________________?
Well, it was better than no gift at all! The next day, he wrapped them
and headed to her party. Everyone had a great time, but Sam was still
_________________________ about his gift.
When he got home, he found an email from Rosa saying: Of all the gifts
I _________________________ today, yours was the nicest. How did you
know just what I would love? Thank you for being such a wonderful friend!

Think
What was Sam’s problem, and how did he solve it?
About It!

11
 Passage 5
Name ______________________________________________ Date ____________________

How can a tiny, lonely turtle make friends

with two big animals? Fill in the blanks in
this story to find out.

A lonely Turtle wanted some new friends. So Turtle went to Word List
his __________________________, Elephant, who was happily
chuckled
eating grass. Turtle said, “Elephant, let’s have a tug-of war in the
neighbor
field. If I can stay on my feet, will you be my friend?” scissors

Elephant __________________________ and agreed. success

tumbled
Then Turtle went through the forest to Hippopotamus, who
was floating in the river. Turtle asked the same question. Hippo

Quick Cloze Passages for Boosting Comprehension: Grades 4–6 © 2012 by Scholastic Teaching Resources
laughed, too. “All right, Turtle. If you win, we’ll be friends.”
So Turtle got some __________________________ and a long,
strong rope. He gave one end of the rope to Elephant and said, “Hold this
rope. Don’t pull until you hear me whistle.” Then Turtle took the other
end of the rope through the forest to Hippo and told him the same thing.
When Turtle whistled, Elephant and Hippo pulled and pulled and
huffed and puffed. After a while, Turtle cut the rope. Elephant and Hippo
both __________________________ down with a thud. Turtle’s plan
was a __________________________. Now Elephant, Hippo, and
Turtle are all friends.

Think
What words would you use to describe Turtle?
About It!

12
 Passage 6
Name ______________________________________________ Date ____________________

Fill in the blanks in this fable to find out how

Coyote won dinner for the rest of his life.

A t least three times a week, Coyote sneaked into Mr. Hank’s Word List
ranch and stole chickens or eggs.
guard
“Coyote,” Mr. Hank said one day, “I’ll make you a deal. If you
investigate
can steal my clothes tonight, I’ll give you three chickens a week, nightshirt

forever. If I catch you, promise never to steal from me again.” thief

wildly
“Okay,” said Coyote, “it’s a deal.”
Quick Cloze Passages for Boosting Comprehension: Grades 4–6 © 2012 by Scholastic Teaching Resources

That night, Mr. Hank told Mrs. Hank about the deal, putting
his clothes on a table in the bedroom. He sat on one side of the table in his
__________________________, and she sat on the other. Shortly, Mr. Hank
heard his horses running __________________________ outside. He asked
Mrs. Hank to __________________________ the clothes while he went to
__________________________.
Now Coyote went to the window and called in, “You’d better hand me
those clothes, dear. That __________________________ might steal them
while I’m gone.”
Mrs. Hank, thinking it was her husband, handed the clothes out the
window. And that is how Coyote earned his dinner for the rest of his life.

Think
What happened just before Mr. Hanks left the bedroom?
About It!

13