Worksheet

What Tree Rings Tell Us

Read an article about tree rings, quote it accurately and choose quotations that support inferences about what rings reveal.

Grade 5ELAInteractive · Printable

Aligned toRI.5.1

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1 Common Core standard
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10 questions
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Details

Format: Interactive · Printable
Grade: Grade 5
Subject: ELA
Question types: Fill in the blank, Multiple choice, Matching, Circle the answer, Short answer

About this worksheet

What students practice

Students quote accurately from an informational text to explain what it says directly.
Students choose quotations from a text that support inferences drawn from it.

How to use

Have students read the article on their own first. Remind them that a quotation must match the author's words exactly, then let them answer the questions and share their open responses.

Curriculum

Common Core standard covered

RI.5.1

Quote accurately from a text to explain what it says directly and to support inferences drawn from it.

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What Tree Rings Tell Us

Quote the article accurately and use quotations to support inferences.

Read the article

What Tree Rings Tell Us

1When a tree is cut down, the top of its stump shows a pattern of circles, one inside another. These circles are called tree rings. To a scientist, they are much more than a pretty pattern. Tree rings are like a diary that a tree keeps for its whole life.

2In places with warm summers and cold winters, a tree adds a new layer of wood just under its bark every year. In spring, the tree grows quickly and makes wood that is pale in color. Later in the summer, growth slows down, and the new wood is darker and more tightly packed. Together, one light band and one dark band make a single ring. That is why counting the rings can tell you how old a tree is.

3The rings are not all the same width. In a year with plenty of rain and a long growing season, a tree grows a lot, and its ring is wide. In a dry year, the tree grows only a little, and its ring is thin. By comparing the widths of the rings, scientists can learn what the weather was like long before anyone kept weather records.

4Rings can hold other clues, too. A forest fire that sweeps past a tree can burn a scar into its trunk. If the tree survives, new wood slowly grows over the wound. The dark scar stays hidden inside the trunk, marking the year of the fire like a bookmark in a book. A tree that loses most of its leaves to hungry caterpillars may also grow a very thin ring that year.

5You might think scientists must cut down a tree to read its rings, but they usually do not. Instead, they use a tool called a borer, which is a long, hollow metal tube with a sharp tip. They twist the borer into the trunk and pull out a rod of wood thinner than a pencil. This sample, called a core, shows every ring from the bark to the center. The small hole usually does not harm a healthy tree, and the tree keeps growing.

6Scientists can also match ring patterns from tree to tree. A run of thin rings from several dry years in a row shows up in many trees from the same area, almost like a fingerprint. By lining up these patterns in living trees, old stumps, and wooden beams, scientists have found out when the logs in some very old buildings were cut.

7Some of the oldest living trees on Earth are bristlecone pines, which grow high in the mountains of the western United States. Some of these trees are thousands of years old. Their rings hold a record of thousands of summers, dry spells, and fires, all written in wood.

Quote what the text says

Look back at the article. A quotation must use the author's exact words.

Complete this quotation from paragraph 1. Write the exact word the author uses.

"Tree rings are like a that a tree keeps for its whole life."

Which choice quotes paragraph 3 exactly?

A. "In a dry year, the tree grows only a little, and its ring is wide."
B. "In a dry year, the tree grows only a little, and its ring is thin."
C. "In a dry month, the tree grows only a little, and its ring is thin."
D. "In a dry year, the tree grows very slowly, and its ring is thin."

Which sentence from the article states directly how a person can tell a tree's age?

A. "Together, one light band and one dark band make a single ring."
B. "In spring, the tree grows quickly and makes wood that is pale in color."
C. "Some of these trees are thousands of years old."
D. "That is why counting the rings can tell you how old a tree is."

Read paragraph 5 again. Underline the sentence that tells what a core shows.

You might think scientists must cut down a tree to read its rings, but they usually do not.Instead, they use a tool called a borer, which is a long, hollow metal tube with a sharp tip.They twist the borer into the trunk and pull out a rod of wood thinner than a pencil.This sample, called a core, shows every ring from the bark to the center.The small hole usually does not harm a healthy tree, and the tree keeps growing.

Support inferences with quotations

An inference is an idea you figure out from clues in the text. Use the article to answer each question.

A reader infers that a scientist could use a tree's rings to learn which year a fire burned near it. Underline the sentence in paragraph 4 that best supports this inference.

Rings can hold other clues, too.A forest fire that sweeps past a tree can burn a scar into its trunk.If the tree survives, new wood slowly grows over the wound.The dark scar stays hidden inside the trunk, marking the year of the fire like a bookmark in a book.A tree that loses most of its leaves to hungry caterpillars may also grow a very thin ring that year.

Read this quotation from paragraph 3: "In a year with plenty of rain and a long growing season, a tree grows a lot, and its ring is wide." A tree has one very wide ring. What can you infer about that year?

A. The tree probably got plenty of water that year.
B. A fire probably burned near the tree that year.
C. Caterpillars probably ate most of its leaves that year.
D. A scientist probably drilled into the tree that year.

Match each inference to the quotation from the article that best supports it.

A scientist can study the rings of a living tree without killing it.
A tree's spring wood looks different from its late-summer wood.
Tree rings can help tell how old a building is.
A thin ring does not always mean that a year was dry.

A. "By lining up these patterns in living trees, old stumps, and wooden beams, scientists have found out when the logs in some very old buildings were cut."
B. "A tree that loses most of its leaves to hungry caterpillars may also grow a very thin ring that year."
C. "The small hole usually does not harm a healthy tree, and the tree keeps growing."
D. "Later in the summer, growth slows down, and the new wood is darker and more tightly packed."

Use paragraphs 3 and 6. Scientists find the same run of several thin rings in many trees from one area. What can they most likely infer?

A. A fire burned all of the trees on the same day.
B. The trees were all planted in the very same year.
C. The area had several dry years in a row.
D. The trees were all cut down to make one building.

Which quotation best supports the inference that bristlecone pines are useful to scientists who study weather from long ago?

A. "Some of the oldest living trees on Earth are bristlecone pines, which grow high in the mountains of the western United States."
B. "Their rings hold a record of thousands of summers, dry spells, and fires, all written in wood."
C. "In spring, the tree grows quickly and makes wood that is pale in color."
D. "Rings can hold other clues, too."

10.

Make an inference about why tree rings are useful to scientists who study the past. Support your inference with at least one exact quotation from the article.