fix the sentence
Sentences from the passage with the capitals and punctuation removed — rewrite each one correctly.
Yerkes Observatory Under the Stars
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Color the great dome of Yerkes Observatory and discover how telescopes help people study the sky.
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Reading activity
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A Big Dome for Looking at Stars
A huge dome rises above the trees in Williams Bay, Wisconsin. It is part of Yerkes Observatory, a place built for looking at the sky.
The dome is round, like the top half of a ball. Inside it sits a very large telescope.
A telescope helps people see things that are far away in space. It gathers light from objects such as stars and planets.
The big telescope at Yerkes uses a glass lens to gather light. The lens is at one end of a long tube. A person can look through the other end.
The lens is about 40 inches across. That is wider than many doorways! It is part of the world’s largest refracting telescope, a telescope that gathers light with a lens.
The dome helps protect the telescope from rain and snow. A part of the dome can open so the telescope can point at the sky.
The dome can turn, too. That helps people aim the telescope in different directions.
On a clear night, a few stars may shine above the dome. Many more stars are too faint for our eyes to see on their own.
A telescope gathers more light than our eyes can. That can make faint objects easier to see.
Yerkes Observatory opened in 1897. For many years, people have used its telescopes to study the sky.
Today, people can visit Yerkes and learn about its big telescope. The great dome is a reminder of all there is to see above us.
Glossary
- protect: To keep something safe from harm.
- aim: To point something in a chosen direction.
- faint: Hard to see because it gives off little light.
- directions: Ways or paths in which something can point or move.
- reminder: Something that helps you remember or think about something.
Comprehension questions
What is this passage mostly about?
Where is Yerkes Observatory?
What is inside the big dome?
How does a telescope help people see things far away?
Where is the glass lens on the big telescope?
Why does the dome have a part that opens?
How does turning the dome help people?
What does “faint” mean when the passage describes stars?
What might happen to the telescope in rain or snow if it had no dome?
What can people do at Yerkes today?
Printables & worksheets
More ways to practice with this story — every sheet is built from the text itself, answer key included where it counts.
Get all 4 sheets as one workbook
One PDF with a cover, a contents page and every answer key at the back — color the page in, then keep going on paper.
vocabulary
Match the passage words to their meanings, then fill the missing words back into real sentences.
writing prompts
Two writing tasks that build on the passage, with plenty of lines to write on.
Explore Yerkes Observatory
Download this free coloring page to explore the great dome and telescope at Yerkes Observatory. It is one of our printable coloring pages for young learners interested in places and space.
Pair the coloring page with the informative reading passage, A Big Dome for Looking at Stars. Use the comprehension questions and glossary to help children practice understanding new ideas and vocabulary.
This activity is easy to use in the classroom or at home as part of a lesson about observatories, telescopes, or the night sky.