Worksheets › Science Reading (Grades 3-4)
Reading practice that leaves your child knowing something. Every passage is original and factually checked, every technical word is defined where it appears, and each sheet includes questions that go past the text - a plant in a dark closet with water and air still cannot make sugar, and the passage gives a reader everything needed to work out why.
At noon the sand in a desert can be hot enough to burn skin. By midnight the same sand can be cold.
Many desert animals solve this in one simple way. They sleep through the day and come out at night. Animals that are active at night are called nocturnal.
A kangaroo rat spends the hot hours in a burrow underground. The air down there stays cool and a little damp. When the sun sets, the rat comes up to look for seeds.
It also almost never drinks. It gets nearly all its water from the seeds it eats, and its body wastes very little of it.
A rattlesnake hunts at night too, but not because of the heat alone. It can sense the warmth of a mouse's body in complete darkness. At night a warm mouse stands out against cold sand.
Which of these would be the best title for this passage?
What does nocturnal mean?
Put the kangaroo rat's day in order.
A kangaroo rat and a mouse from a wet meadow are both kept somewhere with food but nothing to drink. Using the passage, which is in trouble first, and why?
A kangaroo rat and a mouse from a wet meadow are both kept somewhere with food but nothing to drink. Using the passage, which is in trouble first, and why?
Scientists sort animals into groups. It helps them talk clearly. One old split is simple. Does the animal have a backbone?
Animals with a backbone are called vertebrates. Fish, frogs, snakes, birds, and mammals all are. A backbone is a row of small bones down the back. It guards the nerve cord inside.
Animals with no backbone are called invertebrates. Insects, spiders, worms, snails, crabs, and octopuses are all in this group.
It is easy to think vertebrates are the main group. They are not. About ninety-five of every hundred known species have no backbone. Beetles alone outnumber all the ones that do.
Many invertebrates still need support. An insect or a crab has a hard shell on the outside. It is called an exoskeleton. It works well, but it cannot grow. The animal must shed it and build a bigger one.
What is the passage's point about vertebrates?
A frog does not start out looking like a frog.
It starts as a tiny egg in the water. The eggs float together in a clump of jelly. That jelly keeps them safe.
Soon a tadpole hatches out. A tadpole has a long tail and no legs. It breathes with gills, the way a fish does. It cannot live on land.
Then the tadpole begins to change. Back legs grow first. Front legs grow next. Lungs grow inside so it can breathe air. The tail gets shorter and shorter.
At last the tail is gone. Now it is a young frog. It can hop onto land and it can swim. This big change of body shape is called metamorphosis.
What does metamorphosis mean in this passage?
Put the stages in order. Which order is right?
These printables come straight from Lit Ladder - an adaptive K-12 reading program that gives your child a quick placement check, finds exactly where they are (not just their grade), and moves them up one skill at a time - from hearing the sounds in a spoken word to weighing evidence in a nonfiction text.
It's free during our beta, with no ads and no third-party trackers - kid logins are username-only and parent-managed.
Are these science reading comprehension worksheets free?
Yes - view, print, and share every sheet for free, with no account and no signup.
Do they include an answer key?
Every worksheet has a full answer key at the bottom of the page.
What grades are these science reading comprehension worksheets for?
They are designed for grades 3 and 4.
Does my child need to read the questions alone?
No. Print it and read the instructions aloud if that is what the sheet needs - at these ages the point is the skill, not whether they can decode the directions.
Can I get a different worksheet?
Yes - click “Generate a new sheet” and a fresh set of problems (with a matching answer key) is created instantly.