Crunch Goes the Panda
Elio leaned on the rail at the zoo. Down below sat a big black and white bear. Crunch!
"It is a panda," said Mom. "And it is eating." The bear held a long green stick in its paws.
"What is that stick?" asked Elio. "Bamboo," said Mom. "It is a kind of very tall grass."
Almost all the food a panda eats is bamboo. It eats the stems and the leaves. It eats new shoots that poke up from the ground.
The outside of every stem is tough. The bear bit it and peeled it off in strips. Then it chewed the softer part in the middle.
Next it pulled the leaves off a stem. It rolled them up into a green bundle. Then it stuffed the bundle in its mouth.
How does it hold its food so well? It has a bump on its wrist. The bump works a bit like a thumb.
Elio could hear every bite. The bear has big, flat back teeth and strong jaws. Together they crush the stems.
"Does it eat anything else?" asked Elio. "It may eat grass, fruit or bugs," said Mom. "Wild ones eat eggs or meat now and then."
But bamboo is not very filling. A panda's belly is built like a meat eater's belly. It cannot get much out of bamboo.
So the bear eats, and eats, and eats. Every day, it eats for longer than a school day.
Elio went to visit the lions and ate a snack. When he came back, the bear was still eating!
All that food has to come out again. A panda can poop forty times in one day. Elio giggled so hard he snorted.
At last the bear climbed onto a log. It shut its eyes. Pandas nap between meals for a few hours.
A sign showed a mother panda with her baby. A new baby is pink and very small. It is about the size of a stick of butter.
The mother cradles her baby against her chest. She holds it with one paw. Its eyes stay shut for weeks.
Wild pandas live only in China. They live high in the mountains. Their forests are thick with bamboo.
The bear woke up and reached for more. Crunch! Can you pick up a pencil without using your thumb?
Questions
- Fish
- Bamboo
- Apples
- Bamboo is not very filling
- It is always bored
- The zoo tells it to
- Very cold
- Hard to chew
- Makes you feel full
- A bump on its wrist
- Its long tail
- Its sharp claws on its back feet
- It fell off a log
- It can poop forty times in one day
- It ate a lion's snack
Words to know
- bamboo: tall woody grass
- shoots: new young stems
- wrist: joint above hand
- jaws: bones for biting
- filling: makes you full
Answer key: Crunch Goes the Panda
- B. Bamboo
- A. Bamboo is not very filling
- C. Makes you feel full
- A. A bump on its wrist
- B. It can poop forty times in one day
Teaching a mixed class? Pandas at three reading levels
Three true passages from the same facts, a basic, a middle and an advanced one, so every group reads about the same thing and the class can talk about it together. Print one PDF: a sheet for each group, marked with a shape instead of a level, and a page for you that says which is which.
- ● Crunch Goes the Panda (this passage)Basic, for about 6 to 8 · reading level 7 · 386 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 1.5 · 5 questions
- ▲ What Do Pandas Eat?Middle, for about 9 to 12 · reading level 11 · 1041 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 5.8 · 6 questions
- ■ The Bamboo BargainAdvanced, for about 13 to 16 · reading level 13 · 1315 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 8.3 · 6 questions
For the teacher: how this passage is levelled
“Crunch Goes the Panda” is a reading level 7 story. Every Peabody story at this level is written and checked to keep sentences to 10 words or fewer, to aim at an average of 6 words a sentence, and to show 12 to 30 words on a screen. At most 8% of its words may be off the familiar-word list. Children in 3rd grade start at this level.
| This passage | 386 words, 18 screens, 5 multiple-choice questions with an answer key, and 5 vocabulary words with kid-sized meanings |
|---|---|
| Longest sentence at this level | 10 words |
| Words on a screen | 12 to 30 |
| Skills practised at this level | phonics (sounding words out), sight words, spelling |
Reading level 7: the limits, a real sample and the free games. Peabody is a learning app, not an assessment: use the questions to talk about the story, not to grade a child.