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Busy Bees

2nd Grade Common Core RI.2.1 Fact text 134 words ⏱ 15 minESL A1

An informative text about bees: how they help plants make fruit, how they live in a hive and why we should protect them.

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Name: ______________________   Date: ____________

Bees are small insects, but they do a very big job. When a bee visits a flower to drink its sweet nectar, yellow dust called pollen sticks to its body. Then the bee flies to the next flower and carries the pollen with it. This helps the plants make fruit and seeds.

Without bees, we would have fewer apples, almonds, watermelons and many other foods.

Honeybees live together in a hive. In one hive there can be 50,000 bees, but only one queen. The queen lays eggs, and the worker bees collect food, clean the hive and take care of the babies.

Today there are fewer bees in the world than in the past. Scientists say that poisons in gardens and fields are one reason. You can help by planting flowers on your balcony.

📘 Word bank
insects
small animals with six legs
nectar
the sweet liquid inside flowers
pollen
yellow dust made by flowers
sticks
holds on to something
seeds
small parts of a plant that can grow into new plants
hive
the home of a group of bees
lays eggs
puts eggs out of her body
poisons
substances that can harm or kill living things

✏️ Questions

  1. Key details

    Why does a bee visit a flower?

  2. Key details

    What is pollen?

  3. Inference

    Why does the writer say that bees "do a very big job"?

  4. Key details

    How many queens are there in one hive?

  5. Key details

    Write TWO jobs of the worker bees.

  6. Key details

    According to scientists, what is one reason that there are fewer bees today?

  7. Main idea

    What is the main idea of the text?

Questions

  1. Why does a bee visit a flower?

    1. To sleep.
    2. To drink its sweet nectar.
    3. To lay eggs.
    4. To find the queen.

  2. What is pollen?

    ______________________________________________________________

  3. Why does the writer say that bees "do a very big job"?

    1. Because bees are very large.
    2. Because bees make a lot of noise.
    3. Because bees help plants make fruit, so we have food.
    4. Because bees live for many years.

  4. How many queens are there in one hive?

    1. One.
    2. Two.
    3. Fifty.
    4. 50,000.

  5. Write TWO jobs of the worker bees.

    ______________________________________________________________

  6. According to scientists, what is one reason that there are fewer bees today?

    1. Too many flowers.
    2. Cold winters.
    3. Big cities.
    4. Poisons in gardens and fields.

  7. What is the main idea of the text?

    1. Honey is good for you.
    2. Bees are very important, and we need to protect them.
    3. How to build a hive.
    4. Bees are dangerous.

Answer key

  1. b) To drink its sweet nectar.
  2. Yellow dust (that sticks to the bee's body).
  3. c) Because bees help plants make fruit, so we have food.
  4. a) One.
  5. Collect food, clean the hive, take care of the babies (any two).
  6. d) Poisons in gardens and fields.
  7. b) Bees are very important, and we need to protect them.

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