3rd grade reading comprehension worksheets

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Inference questions are short answer; the rest are multiple choice.
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3rd grade reading comprehension passage with questions and an answer key · 2 pages + answer key

NameDateGrade 3 readingJada’s First RecitalRead the story. Then answer the questions. Fill in the bubble or write your answer.Fiction · 3rd grade · 213 wordsJada’s fingers felt like ice. In ten minutes, she would walk onto the stage and1play her piano piece in front of a hundred people. She had practiced it every dayfor two months. She could play it with her eyes closed. But right now, shecouldn’t even remember the first note.Her piano teacher, Mr. Kim, sat down beside her backstage. “Nervous?” he2asked.Jada nodded. “What if I make a mistake?”3“Then you keep going,” Mr. Kim said. “The audience won’t remember one wrong4note. They’ll remember the music.” He showed her a trick: breathe in for fourcounts, hold for four, and breathe out for four. Jada tried it three times. Hershoulders loosened, and her hands began to warm.When her name was called, Jada walked to the piano and sat down. She placed5her hands on the keys, took one more slow breath, and began.In the middle of the piece, her finger slipped and hit a wrong key. Jada’s heart6jumped, but she remembered Mr. Kim’s words and kept playing. The music flowedon, and the mistake disappeared behind her.When she finished, the room filled with applause. Jada bowed, grinning.7Backstage, Mr. Kim gave her a thumbs-up. “Did anyone notice?” she whispered.“Only you,” he said.8Questions1.How long had Jada practiced her piece?Atwo daysBone yearCone weekDtwo monthsedulist.com/worksheets/reading-comprehension/3rd-gradePage 1 of 2

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Third grade reading passages run about 200 to 240 words: a science fair project that goes missing, a lighthouse cat in a storm, and a first piano recital. The nonfiction covers how honeybees share jobs, the water cycle, and the Wright brothers' first flight in 1903, and a poem describes rain on a city street.

In 3rd grade, kids shift from learning to read to reading to learn, and state reading tests usually begin. These worksheets practice what those tests ask: find details, define a word from context, infer a character's feelings, and state the main idea. Written answers get three notebook lines; ask for an answer plus one piece of evidence from the passage. To round out the week, add 3rd grade writing prompts, 3rd grade vocabulary and 3rd grade spelling.

Tips for using it

  • Teach RACE for written answers. Restate the question, Answer it, Cite evidence, and Explain.
  • Time a passage once a month to track reading fluency.
  • Ask your child to tell you the main idea in 10 words or fewer before choosing an answer.

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Questions

What should a 3rd grader be able to read?

Third graders read chapter books and grade-level nonfiction independently, figure out unknown words from context, describe characters and explain how their actions affect events, and find the main idea and key details of a text.

How do I help my 3rd grader with inference questions?

Model it out loud. Read a line like "Jada's fingers felt like ice" and ask what it tells you about how she feels and why. Then have your child point to the clues before answering.

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