Use Text Features

Grade 5 Reading Worksheet - Building Confidence

Circle the answer.

1. Read this first

   Making Maple Syrup

   Every spring, farmers in Vermont and Canada turn tree sap into sweet syrup. It is slow work, but the result is worth it.

   When Sap Runs

   Maple trees store sugar in their roots over the winter. In early spring, nights are below freezing and days are above freezing. This change in temperature makes sap flow up through the tree. The sap season lasts only four to six weeks.

   Tapping the Tree

   Farmers drill a small hole, called a tap hole, into the trunk. They push in a metal spout. Sap drips out of the spout into a bucket or a plastic tube. A healthy tree is not harmed by a tap. The hole heals in about a year.

   Photo caption: A metal spout lets sap drip into a covered bucket. The cover keeps out rain and snow.

   From Sap to Syrup

   Fresh sap looks like water and tastes only a little sweet. Farmers boil it in a large flat pan called an evaporator. As the water turns to steam, the sap gets thicker and sweeter. It takes many hours of boiling.

   Table: How Much Sap Makes Syrup
   10 gallons of sap make 1 quart of syrup.
   40 gallons of sap make 1 gallon of syrup.
   80 gallons of sap make 2 gallons of syrup.

   Sidebar: Did You Know?
   Native peoples of the Northeast made maple sugar long before Europeans arrived. They taught early settlers how to collect sap.

   Glossary
   evaporator: a wide, flat pan used to boil sap
   sap: the watery liquid that flows inside a tree

2. 1.

   Under which heading would you read about why sap starts to flow?

   • When Sap Runs
   • Tapping the Tree
   • From Sap to Syrup
3. 2.

   Use the table. How much sap is needed to make 1 gallon of syrup?

   • 80 gallons
   • 40 gallons
   • 10 gallons
4. 3.

   What does the photo caption tell you that the paragraphs do not?

   • The sap season lasts four to six weeks.
   • Sap is boiled in a flat pan.
   • The bucket's cover keeps out rain and snow.
5. 4.

   Use the glossary. What is an evaporator?

   • a metal spout pushed into a tree
   • a bucket that collects the sap
   • a wide, flat pan used to boil sap
6. 5.

   Which fact appears only in the sidebar?

   • Native peoples taught settlers to collect sap.
   • A tap hole heals in about a year.
   • Fresh sap tastes only a little sweet.
7. 6.

   What is the section under the heading "Tapping the Tree" mostly about?

   • how farmers collect sap from a tree
   • how long the sap must boil
   • what words in the text mean