Planting the Three Sisters · Grades 4–5

The passage and its 6 questions

Directions: Read the passage carefully. Then answer the questions in full sentences.

• Every spring, Ava and her grandmother plant a Three Sisters garden behind their house in western New York. Their family is Seneca, one of the six nations of the
• Haudenosaunee Confederacy, and this way of planting is hundreds of years old.
• First, they build small mounds of soil and plant corn seeds in the middle. When the corn is a few inches tall, Grandma hands Ava the bean seeds. "The beans will climb the corn like a ladder," she says. Last, they plant squash around the edges of each mound.
• All summer, the three plants help one another. The tall corn holds up the bean vines.
• The beans add nitrogen, a kind of plant food, to the soil. The squash spreads wide, prickly leaves that shade the ground, keep the soil damp and block weeds.
• "In our tradition, corn, beans and squash are sisters who grow best together," Grandma tells Ava. "Each one gives something, and each one receives something."
• In the fall, they harvest everything. Grandma shows Ava how to braid the corn husks together so the ears can hang and dry for winter. Ava ties the last braid and smiles.
• Next spring, she will help choose the best seeds to plant again.
• 1. In what order do Ava and her grandmother plant the Three Sisters?
• 2. How does the corn help the beans?
• 3. What does the word 'harvest' mean in paragraph 5?
• 4. Why do you think Grandma calls the plants sisters?
• 5. Copy the sentence that explains how the squash helps the garden.
• 6. What is the author's purpose: to inform, to entertain or to persuade? Explain.