Creatures of the Night

Do you have bats in your neighborhood? If you do, at what times of day have you seen them?

1 Charley and Mattie Rosen helped their parents clean up after dinner. Charley rinsed the dishes in a tub of clean water and then handed them to his mom to be dried. Mattie gathered firewood so that they could make s’mores and tell scary stories. Mattie loved the smell of wood smoke and the taste of gooey marshmallows melting the chocolate between crisp graham crackers.

2 “How much more wood do we need, Dad?” asked Mattie, setting a small stack beside her father.

3 “I think that should last us for a while, Mattie,” replied Mr. Rosen. Mattie brushed her hands on her jeans and crouched beside her dad to watch as the fire grew larger and hotter.

4 “Look at those birds!” exclaimed Charley, pointing a soapy finger at the sky. His parents and Mattie followed his finger and saw what appeared to be a flock of birds swooping out of a tree into the deep blue sky of twilight.

5 “I don’t think those are birds, Charley,” said Mrs. Rosen, drying her hands on a dishtowel. “I’m pretty sure they’re bats. You can tell by the way they fly. See how jerky their movements are? Birds seem to fly more gracefully than bats do. 6 “Shouldn’t we get into the tent?” asked Charley nervously. “Vampire bats can suck your blood, can’t they?”

7 Mr. Rosen chuckled. “I don’t think we have to worry too much about that. There are only a few species of vampire bats in the world, and none of them live in North America. Besides, even vampire bats don’t feed on human blood. ”

8 “What about rabies?” asked Mattie, leaning in closer to her dad.

9 “Bats can carry rabies, but it’s quite unusual,” said Mrs. Rosen. “We’re not going to have close contact with the bats, so it’s not anything we need to worry about.

10 “Didn’t I ever tell you kids about my trip to Bracken Cave when I was in college?” Mrs. Rosen asked. Mattie and Charley shook their heads, but they kept an eye on the sky.

11 “Well,” said Mrs. Rosen, “I was visiting a classmate from school who lived in San Antonio, Texas. She had told me all about a place called Bracken Cave. About 20 million Mexican free-tailed bats go there every year to give birth and raise their young. ”

12 “Twenty million bats?” said Mattie and Charley incredulously.

13 Mrs. Rosen nodded. “Watching them come out of the cave at night was one of the most remarkable things I have ever seen. The entire sky seemed to fill with them. Conservationists say that the bats from Bracken Cave eat about 200 tons of insects each summer evening.

14 The Rosens sat quietly, looking up at the sky as it darkened. The fire gave off a gentle glow as they patiently waited, hoping to catch another glimpse of the bats as they set out on their evening’s activities.

Spectrum Reading Grade 6

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Mark each sentence below F if it is in first-person point of view and T if it is in third-person point of view.

1. _____ I love making s’mores!

2. _____ Charley rinsed the dishes in a tub of clean water.

3. _____ I went to San Antonio to visit a friend from college.

4. _____ Mr. Rosen said that vampire bats don’t live in North America.

Write F before the sentences that are facts. Write O before the sentences that are opinions.

5. _____ Mattie gathered wood for the fire.

6. _____ Everything is more enjoyable when you are camping.

7. _____ Mexican free-tailed bats come to Bracken Cave to give birth and raise their young.

8. _____ The sky is most beautiful at dusk.

9. How do you think Mattie and Charley will feel the next time they see a bat? Why?

10. What ingredients are used to make s’mores?

11. Find one sentence that shows that Mattie enjoys camping. Write it on the lines below.

12. Where is Bracken Cave located?

Write the idiom from paragraph 10 on the line next to its meaning.

13. watched or observed ________________________________________________________________

Spectrum Reading Grade 6

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