Pairing an inquiry lesson with a traditional reading activity creates a jarring philosophical mismatch between the interaction, deep thinking, and scientific reasoning that drives meaningful inquiry instruction and the "scan the text, copy the answers" response often obtained from elementary nonfiction readers. Realizing that there must be a better approach, the author recently made it his quest to seek and adapt reading activities that more closely match the spirit of science inquiry instruction. Based on his search, the author presents a pair of fifth-grade activities: an inquiry science activity and an active reading activity. In the science activity, students use straws and marbles to conduct hands-on investigations of force and two-dimensional motion. In the reading activity that immediately follows, the students solidify their understanding of the inquiry lesson's underlying concepts as they collaboratively analyze a text that contains words that have been blacked out. (Contains 2 figures.)