Popcorn

Learning A–Z level O Multi-level N/A

Grade 2 Word Count 701
Lexile 800L Nonfiction • Informational

Refer to the Focus Question on page 2 of this title to guide

discussion and support additional learning connected to the text.
Through
Do you like to eat popcorn at the movies? Believe it or
not, popcorn has a long history that goes back thousands
of years to Mexico, where corn was first grown for food.
the Ages
Popcorn Through the Ages introduces students to the
story of popcorn from the ancient Americas through
the Great Depression and beyond. The book can also
be used to teach students how to retell and sequence
events.

Photo Credits:
Front cover: © iStock.com/Kesu01; title page: © iStock.com/bonchan; page 3: © Donyanedomam/Dreamstime.com; page 4: © Kirn Vintage
Stock/Corbis Historical/Getty Images; page 5: © Brown Bear/Windmil Books/UIG/Getty Images; page 6 (main): © iStock.com/CrackerClips;
page 6 (inset): © Martin Shields/Science Source; page 7: © Peter Dennis/Exactostock/SuperStock; page 8: courtesy of Library of Congress,
Prints & Photographs Division [LC-USZ62-105408]; page 9: Felix Choo/Alamy Stock Photo; page 10 (top): © Everett Collection/Newscom;
page 10 (bottom): © iStock.com/Fodor90; page 11: © CHARLES PHELPS CUSHING/ClassicStock/The Image Works; page 12: © Weegee(Arthur
Fellig)/International Center of Photography/Getty Images; page 13: © Jupiterimages/Photolibrary/Getty Images; page 14 (top): Michael
Neelon(misc)/Alamy Stock Photo; page 14 (bottom): Sara Stathas/Alamy Stock Photo; page 15: © iStock.com/LauriPatterson; page 16:
© iStock.com/xxmmxx

For more great books visit Written by Keith and Sarah Kortemartin
www.learninga-z.com
© Learning A–Z, all rights reserved.
 Popcorn Focus Question
What do readers learn about

Through
the history of popcorn?

the Ages
Words to Know
allowed machine
colonists microwave
explorers movie theaters
kernels survived
kettle

Connections
Writing
Above: Popcorn can be popped while still on the cob. List adjectives that describe how popcorn
Page 3: A man pops popcorn in a kettle to sell in a street market in smells, tastes, looks, sounds, and feels. Then
Agra, India.
use the adjectives to write a descriptive poem
about popcorn.
Math
Ask your classmates to identify four flavors of
Written by Keith and Sarah Kortemartin popcorn. Ask them which flavor they like best.
Organize the data you collect into a graph. Discuss
what you notice about the data with a classmate.
 Table of Contents
A Snack That Goes Way Back . . . . . . . . 4
Two young boys enjoy popcorn they bought on the street in 1912.
Prehistoric Popcorn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
A Snack That Goes Way Back
Popcorn in the New World . . . . . . . . . . 7
Do you eat popcorn at the movies?
Popcorn Explodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 People have been eating popcorn in
movie theaters since the early 1900s .
Popcorn at the Movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
However, popcorn is much older than
Popcorn Today . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 the movies . In fact, it’s one of the oldest
snack foods in the world . The story
Many Flavors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
of popcorn stretches back thousands
Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 of years .

Popcorn Through the Ages • Level O 3 4

Size of Corncobs
Ancient corncobs and popcorn kernels
have survived in caves all over the
Americas . A cave in New Mexico called
Ancient Modern
Bat Cave contained corncobs that may
be as much as four thousand years old .
Meanwhile, scientists have found one-
thousand-year-old popped corn in a cave
in Utah . Some of this ancient popcorn
looks almost fresh . Would you eat
popcorn that’s been
sitting in a cave for
a thousand years?

Five thousand years of farming has made corncobs much bigger over time.

Prehistoric Popcorn
People first started growing corn for
food in Mexico eight to nine thousand
years ago . Corn spread all over the
Americas from there . Ancient Americans
ground corn into flour . They also First explored in the 1940s, Bat Cave in New Mexico (main) contained the
oldest corn ever found in North America. This ancient ear of corn (inset)
popped corn as a snack . is more than six hundred years old.

Popcorn Through the Ages • Level O 5 6

 In the 1600s,
some Native
Americans
gave early
European
settlers food,
including
corn, to help
them survive.

A man sells popcorn from his wagon to a crowd in the late 1800s
in Denver, Colorado.
Popcorn in the New World
Popcorn Explodes
European explorers got a surprise in
the Americas in the 1600s . Popcorn was Over time, popcorn grew more and more
a snack they’d never seen before . They popular . However, it was a snack people
found people eating it everywhere, usually made for themselves at home, in
though . Native Americans near the small amounts . It took time to pop corn
Great Lakes ate popcorn in a soup . in a kettle over a fire .
People in Peru toasted popcorn and
That all changed in 1885 when Charles
ate it as a snack .
Cretors, a Chicago businessman,
The European colonists loved popcorn, invented the first popcorn-popping
too . They popped corn over a fire as machine . His machine popped corn
a snack . Some also ate popcorn for quickly and easily . It also had wheels .
breakfast with cream and sugar . It As a result, popcorn could be sold
must have tasted a little bit like our on the street at fairs, circuses, and
cereal today . sporting events .

Popcorn Through the Ages • Level O 7 8

 Cracker Jack became popular with
baseball fans and for decades included
a small “toy surprise” in every box.

Americans wait in line for bread in New York City during the Great Depression.

Popcorn at the Movies

People started eating popcorn
Early movie theater owners tried to
everywhere, and new popcorn flavors
keep popcorn out, but that didn’t last
started to appear . In the late 1890s,
long . In the 1930s, the United States went
for example, a snack maker invented
through a difficult time called the Great
Cracker Jack . This treat was made
Depression . Many people lost their jobs,
with popcorn, peanuts, and molasses .
and most people had very little money .
It seemed as though people couldn’t get
enough popcorn . However, one group
didn’t love the crunchy snack at first:
movie theater owners! Popcorn was not Wowser!
Why does popcorn pop? The answer is water. There is a little bit
allowed in movie theaters in the early of water inside each popcorn kernel. As popcorn is heated, the water
1900s . Theater owners worried that turns to steam and presses on the inside wall of the kernel. When it
gets hot enough, the kernel “explodes” into a fluffy snack.
popcorn was too noisy and messy .

Popcorn Through the Ages • Level O 9 10

Popcorn sellers, like everyone else, were Eventually, movie theater owners
looking for ways to make a living . They figured out that they could make
began to go into movie theater lobbies money by selling popcorn themselves .
on their own, walking around to sell Theaters began to sell popcorn and
popcorn . This turned out to be a great other snacks, with great success .
idea . Popcorn tasted good, and it was
Popcorn became even more popular
cheap . In fact, it was one of the few snacks
in movie theaters during World War II .
most people could afford during the
During the war, sugar and candy were
Depression . People began to eat more
hard to get . People ate even more
popcorn than ever before .
popcorn in place of sweet snacks .

A group of children wait to get into a movie theater in Waterbury,

Connecticut, in 1935. A girl eats popcorn as she watches a movie in New York in the early 1940s.

Popcorn Through the Ages • Level O 11 12

 Microwave popcorn (top) is quick and easy to make. Stores have many kinds
of popcorn for sale (bottom).

Today it’s very easy to enjoy a bowl of popcorn at home in front of a TV.
However, microwave popcorn was
invented in 1981 . Suddenly, movie
Popcorn Today theater popcorn was very easy to make
Popcorn became a little less popular at home, and many, many people did just
in the 1950s and 1960s . This happened that . Today, almost three-fourths of the
because more and more people owned popcorn we eat is made at home . We
TVs . They often stayed home to watch still eat a lot of popcorn while we watch
TV instead of going to a movie theater . movies, either at home or in the theater .

Popcorn Through the Ages • Level O 13 14

 Glossary
allowed (v.) page 9
let something happen

colonists (n.) page 7

people who live in a colony or are founders of
a new colony

explorers (n.) page 7

people who visit and learn about new places

kernels (n.) page 6

the softer inner parts of seeds or nuts

Modern popcorn flavors include butter, cheddar, s’mores, caramel, hot and kettle (n.) page 8
spicy, chocolate peanut, and others. a metal pot with a handle and spout that is
used to heat liquids
Many Flavors
machine (n.) page 8
People living in the United States now
any device that uses energy to help a person
eat more popcorn than people in any do work
other country in the world . Popcorn
microwave (n.) page 14
comes in all kinds of flavors . You can
a chamber that uses energy waves to cook
get popcorn that tastes like blue cheese, food; a microwave oven
mushrooms, and even cupcakes . You
movie theaters (n.) page 4
can also eat popcorn the most common buildings where movies are played
way—with salt and butter .
survived (v.) page 6
What’s your favorite? stayed alive; continued to exist

Popcorn Through the Ages • Level O 15 16