WIDA ACCESS Grades 4–5 Practice Tests

Part A: Getting Ready for the Nature Walk

A schoolyard with the school door, a big oak tree next to a vegetable garden, a fence and swings. A teacher stands at the door with his class.

1. Which picture shows what each student should take?
2. Which picture shows where the class will meet?
3. Which picture shows what a student should do when she finds a bug?

Part B: Who Eats What?

A food chain: sun → grass → grasshopper → frog → heron, with arrows pointing from each food to the animal that eats it.

1. According to Ms. Rivera, why is grass called a producer? (A) It is eaten by grasshoppers. (B) It needs rain to grow. (C) It makes its own food. (D) It grows near the pond.
2. What do the arrows in the food chain show? (A) how energy moves from food to eater (B) which animal in the meadow is biggest (C) where each animal lives in the meadow (D) which animals eat only plants
3. According to the class, what would happen if the frogs left the meadow? (A) There would be fewer grasshoppers and more grass. (B) The herons would have more food to eat. (C) The grass would grow taller than before. (D) There would be more grasshoppers and less grass.

Part C: Bugs in Our Garden Square

Grace and Omar count bugs inside a string square. A bar graph 'Bugs We Counted' shows ants 18, ladybugs 9, beetles 6, butterflies 3.

1. Which bug did Grace and Omar count the fewest of? (A) ants (B) butterflies (C) beetles (D) ladybugs
2. How many more ants than ladybugs did they count? (A) 2 more (B) 6 more (C) 27 more (D) 9 more
3. About how many ants were in all four squares? (A) 72 ants (B) 22 ants (C) 36 ants (D) 54 ants

Part D: The Pond Keeper

Kofi and his grandpa sit on a dock by a pond covered with small green leaves. A net leans on the dock; a dragonfly, a frog and ducks are on the pond.

1. Why did Kofi want to scoop the leaves out of the pond? (A) He wanted to feed them to the fish. (B) Grandpa asked him to clean the pond. (C) He needed the leaves for a project. (D) He thought the pond looked messy.
2. In the story, what does the word shelter mean? (A) food that animals eat (B) a safe place to stay (C) a kind of green plant (D) clean water in a pond
3. What lesson did Kofi learn in the story? (A) A clean pond is always better for animals. (B) It is more fun to swim than to fish. (C) Watch and learn before you change nature. (D) Always finish your jobs as fast as you can.

Part E: Bringing Back the Wetland

A park ranger shows a class a poster of a wetland with cattails, ducks, a turtle and a frog next to a small town.

1. Why did the town drain the wetland long ago? (A) People wanted to use the land for farms. (B) The wetland was too muddy for the ducks. (C) Wildlife workers asked the town to do it. (D) The river near the town had dried up.
2. What problem did the town have after the wetland was drained? (A) The farmers could not grow corn. (B) There was not enough water to drink. (C) Water flooded the town every spring. (D) The snow did not melt in spring.
3. What is the speaker's main point? (A) Farm fields are more useful than wetlands. (B) The wetland helped people and animals. (C) Volunteers should plant corn, not cattails. (D) Turtles need very deep water to live.

Part A: Worm Bin Helpers

A worm bin with bedding, food scraps and worms in a shady corner of a classroom. Two students stand next to it with a spray bottle and a notebook.

1. Our class has a worm bin! The worms eat our food scraps and turn them into rich soil for the school garden. Worms like fruit and vegetable scraps, such as banana peels, apple cores and carrot tops. Do NOT put meat, cheese or anything oily in the bin. These foods make the bin smell bad, and they are not good for the worms. Which food can go in the worm bin?
2. Worm Bin Helper Jobs: Each week, two students are Worm Bin Helpers. On Monday, the helpers add food scraps from the class snack bucket. On Wednesday, they spray the bedding with a little water, because worms need to stay damp. On Friday, they check that the lid is closed and write how the bin looks in the Worm Log. Helpers must wash their hands after every job. What do the helpers do on Wednesday? (A) add food scraps from the snack bucket (B) write in the Worm Log (C) spray the bedding with water
3. Tips from Ms. Rivera: Keep the worm bin in a dark, cool corner of the room, away from the sunny window. Worms have no eyes, but their skin can sense light, and they try to move away from it. Also, keep the bedding damp. If it gets too dry, the worms can't breathe through their skin. Treat our worms gently. They are important helpers in our class ecosystem! Why should the worm bin stay away from the sunny window? (A) The sun makes the food scraps smell bad. (B) Worms move away from light. (C) The window is too cold at night.

Part B: The Milkweed Summer

Hana and her grandmother stand by a row of milkweed plants along a fence. A monarch butterfly and a caterpillar are on the plants.

1. Hana loved the orange and black monarch butterflies that visited her grandmother's garden every summer. But this year, she saw only one. "Where did they all go?" she asked. Grandma sighed. "Monarch caterpillars can eat only one kind of plant: milkweed. The empty lot down the street used to be full of milkweed, but now it is a parking lot." Hana thought for a moment. "Then we should grow our own milkweed," she said. What happened right after Hana saw only one monarch butterfly? (A) She planted milkweed in the garden. (B) She asked where the butterflies went. (C) She went to the empty lot to look. (D) She drew a picture of the one butterfly.
2. That fall, Hana and Grandma collected milkweed pods from a friend's farm. When the pods split open, hundreds of seeds floated out on white, silky threads. All winter, Hana kept the seeds in an envelope in the refrigerator. In spring, she planted them in a sunny row by the fence. She watered them every evening, even on days when she was tired or wanted to play. Her patience paid off. By June, the milkweed plants were taller than her knees. What does the word patience mean in this story? (A) feeling tired at the end of a long day (B) planting seeds in a long, straight row (C) getting help from friends and family (D) waiting calmly and not giving up
3. One July morning, Hana spotted a tiny striped caterpillar on a milkweed leaf. Two weeks later, she found a green case hanging from the fence, with gold dots like little buttons. Then one afternoon it cracked open, and a monarch slowly stretched its wings. Hana didn't say a word. She just held Grandma's hand and grinned. That evening she wrote in her notebook: "Next year: plant more milkweed, and tell the neighbors!" What can you tell about Hana from the end of the story? (A) She plans to help more monarchs. (B) She is tired of working in the garden. (C) She wants to keep the butterfly as a pet. (D) She is sad that the summer is ending.

Part C: Nature's Clean-Up Crew

A forest floor with a fallen log, mushrooms, dead leaves, earthworms in the soil, a young tree, a close-up of tiny bacteria, and a compost bin.

1. When a leaf falls or a log gets old, what happens to it? It doesn't stay the same forever. Decomposers slowly break it down into tiny pieces. Decomposers are living things like mushrooms, earthworms and bacteria. Bacteria are so small that you need a microscope to see them. Without decomposers, dead leaves and old logs would pile up higher and higher all over the forest. What is this paragraph mostly about? (A) how to use a microscope (B) why leaves change color in fall (C) what decomposers do in a forest (D) how tall forest trees can grow
2. Decomposers are very important for plants. When they break down dead leaves, plants and animals, they return nutrients to the soil. Nutrients are like vitamins for plants. New plants take in these nutrients through their roots and use them to grow. In this way, the materials in a fallen tree can become part of a young tree many years later. How do decomposers help new plants grow? (A) They put nutrients back into the soil. (B) They move the soil so roots get more sunlight. (C) They eat the insects that hurt plants. (D) They carry water up to the leaves.
3. You can see decomposers at work in a compost pile. Students at Oakwood School put apple cores, grass clippings and dry leaves in a bin. Every week, they mixed the pile with a shovel. After three months, the scraps had changed into dark, crumbly soil called compost. The students spread the compost in their garden. That summer, their tomato plants grew bigger than ever before. Why did the tomato plants probably grow bigger that year? (A) The students watered the tomatoes less often. (B) The garden got less rain than usual. (C) The students planted the apple cores. (D) The compost added nutrients to the soil.

Part D: Our Pond Survey

Students kneel by a school pond counting tadpoles, frogs and dragonflies. A frog life-cycle poster stands nearby.

1. Ms. Rivera's class visited the school pond once a month in the spring. Each time, the students watched the pond for one hour and counted the animals they saw. They wrote their counts in the table. In March, the water was still cold, and they saw no dragonflies at all. As the weather got warmer, they saw more and more dragonflies. How many more dragonflies did the class see in June than in April? (A) 28 (B) 17 (C) 25 (D) 22
2. Look at the tadpoles and the frogs in the table. From April to June, the number of tadpoles went down. At the same time, the number of frogs went up. The students talked about why. Omar said, "Maybe the tadpoles swam away to another pond." Sofia said, "I don't think so. I think they changed." She pointed to the picture of a frog's life cycle on the wall. Which is the best explanation for the changes in the table? (A) The frogs chased the tadpoles away. (B) Many tadpoles grew into frogs. (C) The class counted in a different pond. (D) The water got too cold for tadpoles.
3. The class wants to make a bar graph for their science fair poster. The graph will show the total number of animals seen each month, with tadpoles, frogs and dragonflies added together. Hana says the tallest bar will be April, because that month had the most tadpoles. Ben says they should add up the numbers for every month before they decide. Then they will know for sure. Which month had the greatest total number of animals? (A) March (B) April (C) June (D) May

Part E: The Beavers of Willow Valley

A river valley with a beaver dam, a pond, a swimming beaver, ducks, willow trees, farm fields and a viewing platform.

1. Beavers are sometimes called "nature's engineers." They cut down small trees with their strong front teeth. Then they use the wood and mud to build dams across streams. A dam slows the water down and makes a calm pond behind it. Long ago, beaver fur was very valuable, because people used it to make warm hats and coats. The timeline shows what happened to the beavers of Willow Valley. Why were there almost no beavers in Willow Valley by 1890? (A) Trappers caught them for their fur. (B) The river became too muddy for them. (C) Wildlife workers moved them away. (D) Their ponds dried up in the summer.
2. Without beavers, nobody built new dams on Willow River. The old dams slowly broke apart, and the ponds behind them drained away. The water in the river moved faster and carried soil away from the riverbanks. The muddy water made it hard for fish to find food. By 1950, the valley had far fewer ponds and wetlands than before. Many animals that needed calm water had nowhere to live. What was one effect of losing the beavers? (A) More fish lived in the river. (B) Trappers came back to the valley. (C) Ponds and wetlands dried up. (D) The river water moved more slowly.
3. In 1985, wildlife workers brought twenty beavers back to Willow Valley. Some farmers were worried that the beavers would cut down too many trees. But within twenty years, beaver dams had made new ponds all along the river, and fish, ducks and frogs came back. Today, about three hundred beavers live in the valley, and people visit to see the beaver ponds. Which sentence best tells the main idea of the whole timeline? (A) Beavers are bad for farmers and their trees. (B) The valley changed when beavers left and returned. (C) Trappers made warm hats from beaver fur. (D) About three hundred people visit the beaver ponds each year.

Part 1 — A Visit to the Nature Center

Today we are visiting a nature center. A nature center is a place where people learn about the plants and animals that live nearby.

Look at this picture. It shows the inside of the nature center.

After the tour inside, the students walk on a trail in the forest.

Look at the boy with the binoculars and the girl with the notebook.

1. P1 — Now it's your turn. What other things do you see in the nature center?
2. P3 — Now it's your turn. Look at the girl with the notebook. What is she doing, and why?

Part 2 — Where Do Pill Bugs Go?

Zara found pill bugs under a rock in her backyard. She wanted to answer a question: Do pill bugs like damp places or dry places?

She put a wet paper towel on one side of a tray and a dry paper towel on the other side.

Then she put ten pill bugs in the middle of the tray. She covered the tray with cardboard to make it dark, and she set a timer for ten minutes.

After ten minutes, Zara took off the cardboard and counted the pill bugs on each side.

Look at her results.

1. P3 — Now it's your turn. What did Zara do next? Why do you think she put the pill bugs in the middle?
2. P5 — Now it's your turn. Look at Zara's results. Explain what happened and what the results tell us about pill bugs. Then tell one thing Zara could do to be more sure about her answer.

Part 3 — The Squirrel Who Forgot

Listen to a story called The Squirrel Who Forgot.

Page 1. In the fall, Pip the squirrel was very busy. Every day he gathered acorns and buried them in the ground, one by one, to save food for the winter.

Page 2. When the snow came, Pip dug up his acorns and ate them. But Pip had buried so many acorns that he forgot where some of them were.

Page 3. In the spring, Pip found something new. Tiny green plants were growing where he had buried the acorns he forgot.

Page 4. Many years later, the little plants had grown into tall oak trees. Now Pip's grandchildren play in their branches, and birds build nests there. The squirrel who forgot had planted a forest.

1. P3 — Now it's your turn. Look at page 3. How does Pip feel when he finds the little plants, and how do you know?
2. P5 — Now it's your turn. Tell the rest of the story. Tell what happens on pages 3 and 4, and explain how Pip helped the forest.

Part A: The Hungry Caterpillars

Part B: Energy in a Meadow Food Chain

Part C: A New Project for Our Schoolyard