Native Americans
How the Water Beetle Made Land

How the Water Beetle Made Land
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 2 to 3
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   2.04

     challenging words:    time, leafy, spruce, nights, lower, marks, lived, cedar, land, beetle, pine, tips, west, island, awake, south
     content words:    Great Buzzard

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How the Water Beetle Made Land
By Mary Lynn Bushong

1     A long time ago, there was no land. All the animals lived in a place in the sky. Below them was water. As time went on, there were more and more animals. Soon there were too many animals. There was no room to move.
2     All the animals were sad. They wanted more room. They wanted room to run and jump and play.
3     The little water beetle listened. He wanted to help. One day he looked down at the water and jumped.
4     Down he fell. Then he splashed into the water. He wanted to see what was under the water.
5     The beetle dove down deep. He found a little bit of mud and carried it up. Then he went back for more and more. The water beetle kept getting mud until he had an island.
6     To keep the land in one place, it was tied to the sky at each corner. The corners were north, south, east, and west.
7     Birds came down from the sky looking for dry land. They could not find any. The ground was still too soft to land on.
8     Then the Great Buzzard came down to look. He flew for a long time. Then he got tired and flew lower. The tips of his wings touched the land and made marks in the ground. The low places were valleys and the high places were mountains. The Great Buzzard had formed Cherokee land.

Paragraphs 9 to 16:
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