What are clouds full of?

Read-Along Information with Scaffolding · ELPAC Kindergarten reading. The correct answer, and the reasoning behind it.

The student follows along while the examiner reads an informational text aloud, with pictures for support.

Sit with your child. Read the text aloud while your child follows along. Look at the three pictures together too. Then read each question and its three answers aloud.

Rain

Rain comes from clouds. Clouds are full of little drops of water. The drops get big. Then the drops fall down. Rain helps plants grow. Rain fills lakes and rivers. We use a coat and boots when it rains.

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Read panel descriptions

Picture one: a big gray cloud over a house. Rain falls from the cloud.

Picture two: green plants in a garden. There are drops of water on the leaves.

Picture three: a child in a yellow coat and yellow boots, jumping in a puddle.

The question

Read the question and the three answers aloud to your child.

What are clouds full of?

• Alittle drops of waterCorrect answer
• Bsmall rocks
• Cwarm air

Why “little drops of water” is correct

Pulling a fact out of informational text is harder than remembering a story, because there is no plot to hang it on. Reread the second sentence and pause just before the word "water" so your child can finish it. It also helps to tie the fact to something they have actually seen — the mist on a bathroom mirror, or fog on a car window — since a fact a five-year-old can picture is a fact they keep.

Why the other answers are wrong

• small rocks — The text says water, not rocks. A child who picks this may be thinking about things that fall from the sky rather than what the words said.
• warm air — Air is a reasonable guess about clouds from everyday knowledge, but the text names water drops. Ask "what did the words say?" to send them back to the sentence.

Practice more of this

More reading practice for Kindergarten, or see the ELPAC practice test for kindergarten. For other grades, see free ELPAC practice tests by grade.