The Secret Language of Bees: Become a Reading Detective

What You'll Learn

• Text evidence is the information in the text that proves your answer (no guessing!)
• Cause is why something happens; effect is what happens because of it
• Authors split nonfiction into sections so readers can find information fast
• Good writers revise: make weak ideas stronger, cut repeated words, replace vague words like "them"
• Bees live in colonies where every bee has a job, and a returning bee does a waggle dance to tell others where the flowers are

Words to Know

Central idea

The one big message a whole text is teaching you

The central idea of the bee text is that bees have different jobs that help the colony survive.

Text evidence

Words from the text that prove your answer

The text says the dance tells bees where flowers are — that's evidence!

Cause

Why something happens

The bee found flowers — that's the cause of the dance.

Effect

What happens because of the cause

Other bees fly to the flowers — that's the effect.

Section

A chunk of nonfiction with its own job

To learn how bees stay safe, read the "Protecting the Hive" section.

Revise

To change writing so it's clearer and stronger

We revised the sentence so "underground" was only said once.

Waggle dance

The dance a bee does to show other bees where food is

The worker bee waggle-danced a map to the flower patch.

Check What You Learned

Fun Facts

• A honeybee colony can contain tens of thousands of bees — commonly 20,000 to 80,000 — and most are worker bees

  Source: USDA / Britannica Kids

• Every bee in a colony has a job: worker bees gather nectar and pollen, guard bees protect the entrance, and nurse bees care for the larvae

  Source: USDA Agricultural Research Service

• A worker bee that finds flowers returns to the hive and performs a "waggle dance" that tells other bees the direction and distance to the food

  Source: USDA / National Geographic Kids

• Plants have parts with different jobs: roots absorb water and hold the plant in place, the stem carries water upward, and leaves use sunlight to make food

  Source: NGSS / Britannica Kids

• The central idea of a nonfiction text is the one big message all the details support

  Source: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.3.2

• Strong readers support every answer with text evidence — words from the text that prove the answer, not a guess

  Source: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.3.1