Two engaging, high-interest informational texts! Use both texts for science or for language arts to provide students with science content related to chemistry and ecosystems as well as informational text comprehension skills.

Both resources come with a digital copy ready for Google Classroom or any other digital platform.

Yellowstone Wolves

During the 1930's, people viewed wolves as dangerous and destructive animals and sought to remove them from Yellowstone National Park. This three-part informational text takes students on a journey from the wolves removal in the 1930s to their amazing return in the 1990s and the subsequent transformation of Yellowstone's present-day ecosystem. The ecological changes after their removal were widespread and evident. An excellent lesson about the power of nature's interconnections and the cascade of events that can occur when a species is removed from an ecosystem.

This resource is included in the complete Ecosystems unit! Check it out!

Part One - Students read about the removal of the grey wolf from Yellowstone National Park in the 1930s. Comprehension questions and predictions are required before moving to part two.

Part Two - Students next read about the cascade of ecosystem changes after the wolves disappeared from Yellowstone. After the reading, students complete a graphic organizer regarding the changes that occurred and answer comprehension questions.

Part Three - Finally, students read about the exciting return of the grey wolf and how the ecosystem changed once again. Students then answer comprehension questions and higher-order questions at the end of the activity.

History of the Atomic Model

Engaging three-part informational text about the history of the discovery of atoms as well as the evolution of the atomic model. Students begin by reading about the first documented accounts of the ideas of matter and the atom in ancient Greece. Next, students read about the experimentation with matter in the 1800 and 1900s. Finally, students read about the modern-day model of the atom and what we have learned in the last 2,000 years about the atom.

Each section of text is followed by thought-provoking questions designed to gauge student comprehension.

These resources are NGSS and ELA CCSS aligned:

NGSS

Supports 5-LS2 and MS-LS2 - Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy and Dynamics with crosscutting concepts of cause and effect as well as systems and stems models.

Supports 5-PS1 and MS-PS1 Develop a model to describe that matter is made of particles too small to be seen

ELA CCSS

Supports information text learning of key ideas and details, craft and structure as well as the integration of knowledge and ideas.