edHelper.com
How Things Work
 What Makes Popcorn Pop?

What Makes Popcorn Pop?
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 6 to 8
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   6.25

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    retro-looking, tinfoil, best, heated, withstand, popper, explanation, outer, airtight, contents, instantly, opening, works, content, mysterious, quality
     content words:    Jiffy Pop

Print What Makes Popcorn Pop?
     Print What Makes Popcorn Pop?  (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 What Makes Popcorn Pop?
     Leave your feedback on What Makes Popcorn Pop?  (use this link if you found an error in the story)

What Makes Popcorn Pop?
By Sharon Fabian 		  
1     What makes popcorn pop? Popcorn is an unusual food, but the answer to what makes it pop is not mysterious at all. The scientific explanation is simple, and the details might even help you decide how to pop the best bowl of big fluffy popcorn kernels that you have ever snacked on.
 
2     Making popcorn starts with growing the right kind of corn. Popcorn is different from the sweet corn that you eat as corn-on-the-cob. The popcorn kernel consists of a hard outer shell with starch and water inside. Good popping corn must have a thick rounded shell and the right moisture content. It grows best in sunny fields. The fields must have good drainage and be watered when they dry out. The popcorn plants take from about ninety to about one hundred twenty days to grow. When the kernels are hard and the husks are dry, it is time for the harvest.
 
3     Then the kernels continue to dry either on or off the cob until they reach the right moisture content, which is from eleven to fourteen percent. Popcorn companies can easily test the moisture content by weighing the popcorn, since popcorn with more moisture weighs more.

Paragraphs 4 to 10:
For the complete story with questions: click here for printable
Weekly Reading Books

          Create Weekly Reading Books

Prepare for an entire week at once!

How Things Work
             How Things Work

Science
             Science


    Careers in Science  
 
    Caring for Earth  
 
    Clouds  
 
    Dinosaurs  
 
    Earth's Land  
 
    Earth  
 
    Earthquakes  
 
    Electricity  
 
    Energy  
 
    Erosion  
 
    Food Pyramid  
 
    Food Webs and Food Chain  
 
    Forces and Motion  
 
    Fossils  
 
    Health and Nutrition  
 
    How Things Work  
 
    Landforms  
 
    Life Science  
 
    Light  
 
 
    Magnets  
 
    Matter  
 
    Natural Disasters  
 
    Photosynthesis  
 
    Plant and Animal Cells  
 
    Plants  
 
    Rocks and Minerals  
 
    Science Process Skills  
 
    Seasons  
 
    Simple Machines  
 
    Solar System  
 
    Sound  
 
    Space and Stars  
 
    Tsunami  
 
    Volcanoes  
 
    Water Cycle  
 
    Water  
 
    Weather  
 

More Activities, Lesson Plans, and Worksheets


Back to School
Graphic Organizers
Alphabet Worksheets
Sight Words
Math Worksheets
Mazes
50 States

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 © 2011 edHelper