How a Venus Flytrap Catches Insects, Read and Answer

Before reading, ask your child what problem each place gives a plant, such as poor soil or little rain. After each page, have them point to the part of the plant that solves it. If you have a cactus or a leafy houseplant at home, compare their leaves.

Read how a Venus flytrap's trigger hairs snap its leaf trap shut to get nutrients that bog soil lacks. A bog is wet, spongy ground with poor soil. The directions on the page read: Read the passage. Then, turn the page and answer the questions. On page 2: Circle the letter of the best answer for questions 1 to 3, and write the answers to questions 4 to 6 on the lines. The answer key covers the questions on page 2.

Yes, both. We made it for 5th Grade living things, and the page works the same whether it lands on a kitchen table or a center rotation. At home, most families go through it together and talk the answers out loud, and that talking is where most of the learning happens with plant adaptations. In class it runs well as independent work while you pull a small group. Print one copy or thirty, whichever the day needs.

A plant adaptation is a trait that helps a plant survive where it lives. Plants cannot move to a better home, so their leaves, stems and roots must suit the rain, sun and soil around them. A saguaro's waxy skin and a flytrap's snapping leaf are both adaptations.

It grows in wet, sandy bogs where the soil is low in nutrients. The flytrap still makes its own food from sunlight, water and air, but it gets the missing nutrients from the insects it traps. The trap only shuts if a trigger hair is touched twice, so it does not close on a raindrop.

Rainforest plants often have big leaves with drip tips that shed rain and shallow roots in thin soil. Desert plants have small leaves or spines, deep or wide roots and thick stems that store water for the dry months. One sheet has students chart these differences.

Yes. All three plant adaptations sheets have an answer key, with sample answers for the questions children answer in their own words.

3 printable worksheets, all free to preview. Downloads are included with a ClassWeekly free trial, and every page prints on standard 8.5 x 11 paper.

These are written for 5th Grade students, roughly ages 10-11. Many teachers also use them a grade up for review or a grade down as an extension, so use the preview to judge the fit for a particular child.