Do you know how a rainbow is made? Have you ever wondered how a snake sheds it skin? How do turkey vultures help people? What makes a kite fly? Reading Skills 4A is a collection of nonfiction passages with interactive learning activities, written by children's author Marne Ventura, M.A. and developed by Fred Ventura, Ph.D., as part of the Reading Skills Series published by Ventura Educational Systems.

Understanding informational text is essential to literacy. To help young readers develop this skill, twelve fun, high-interest passages about snakes, vultures, forces of flight, and more, written at the fourth grade reading level, are presented:

* Chasing Rainbows
* New Skin for Snakes
* Bird Watching Journal Entry
* The Water-Saving Plant
* Turkey Vultures
* The California Poppy
* Banana Smoothie
* The Four Forces of Flight
* Flour Power
* A Transparent Invention
* Thirsty?
* Superhero Soap

Each passage is followed by three engaging activities based on the following Common Core Standards for Grade 4 Language Arts:

• comprehension
• vocabulary
• main idea and supporting details
• drawing conclusions
• making inferences
• summarizing
• synonyms and antonyms
• multiple meanings words
• fact vs. opinion
• genre
• author's purpose
• compare and contrast
• text features

The Reading Skills 4A follow-up activities for each of the 12 passages are described below:

Word Fun - a clue is given along with the scrambled letters of a vocabulary word from the passage. The challenge is to unscramble the letters to spell the word.

Fact Check - helps improve recall and comprehension. Students read a statement and tap either True or False based on the contents of the passage.

Skills Practice - Students practice reading comprehension skills by answering multiple choice questions.

A record-keeping component keeps track of the student’s scores on all of the activities.