edHelper.com Animal Themes Prehistoric Mammals Theme Unit

Super Sloths, a Presidential Favorite

---

Super Sloths, a Presidential Favorite
Reading Level

	edHelper's suggested reading level:	grades 3 to 6
	Flesch-Kincaid grade level:	4.18

Vocabulary

	challenging words:		crosswise, inch-thick, saber-toothed, spite, plane, molds, presidential, mammal, southeastern, bird, ordinary, scientist, explorer, finding, skeleton, roots
	content words:		Super Sloth, Super Sloths, President Thomas Jefferson, White House, President Jimmy Carter, Albert Brantley, North America, United States, South America

---

Print Super Sloths, a Presidential Favorite

Print Super Sloths, a Presidential Favorite  (font options, pick words for additional puzzles, and more)

Quickly Print - PDF format

	Quickly Print: PDF (2 columns per page)
	Quickly Print: PDF (full page)

Quickly Print - HTML format

Quickly Print: HTML

Proofreading Activity

Print a proofreading activity

---

Feedback on Super Sloths, a Presidential Favorite

Leave your feedback on Super Sloths, a Presidential Favorite  (use this link if you found an error in the story)

---

Super Sloths, a Presidential Favorite By Colleen Messina

---

¹     It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a Super Sloth! Super Sloths were slower than play dough snails and clumsier than the Abominable snowman. These prehistoric mammals were slow and large...and sweet.
 
²     Some presidents liked these Super Sloths. President Thomas Jefferson loved them so much that he once put fossils of giant sloths in the White House. Do you think they scared Mrs. Jefferson? A modern president also liked sloths. President Jimmy Carter paid for a display of one at the University of Georgia.
 
³     Ditch diggers found this skeleton in 1970. They were building a highway in Georgia. Your dog would have had fun finding those big bones. A geology professor and his students were in charge of finding all the bones. They found about 350 of them. Only 209 bones were in good shape. So how did they make a skeleton without all of the bones?
 
⁴     One student named Albert Brantley was in charge of figuring out this prehistoric skeleton. If you think puzzles are hard, you should know that old sloth bones are much worse! It took him three years to put it together. He even went to a museum to learn about bones. That museum had some sloth skeletons already. Albert took measurements. He made rubber molds of the missing bones. Albert needed more bones to make a whole sloth. He made the other bones out of plaster.
 
⁵     Albert wanted his display to look real. He showed a giant sloth in a mud puddle. It wasn't just an ordinary puddle. The display shows a sticky, gooey mess that would trap the sloth into becoming a fossil forever! The sloth has two back paws and one front paw stuck in the black mud as his other paw reaches for freedom. This skeleton is only the fourth one ever to be displayed. Two others are in the Smithsonian. Another one is at a university in Scotland.

Paragraphs 6 to 11:
For the complete story with questions: click here for printable

---

Weekly Reading Books

Create Weekly Reading Books Prepare for an entire week at once!

---

Animal Themes

Animal Themes

---

Prehistoric Mammals Theme Unit

Prehistoric Mammals Theme Unit

---

More Activities, Lesson Plans, and Worksheets

Back to School Graphic Organizers Alphabet Worksheets Sight Words Math Worksheets Mazes 50 States Education Teaching Monthly Themes January February March April May June July August September October November December

Fractions Place Value Time and Calendar Money Earth Day Solar System Analogies Nouns Following Directions Listening Capitalization Cursive Writing Patterns and Sequencing Dinosaurs All About Me Kindergarten First Grade Second Grade Third Grade Fourth Grade Fifth Grade Sixth Grade

Multiplication Division Main Idea Cause and Effect Measurement Decimals Rounding Order of Operations Verbs Community Helpers Adjectives Plants Grammar Addition and Subtraction Contractions Bulletin Board Ideas Word Searches Crossword Puzzles Printable Puzzles Reading Comprehension Reading Skills English Language Arts

Copyright © 2013 edHelper