Skip to content
LessonPrint

Reading a Grade 3 Fact Text is a free printable Grade 3 English worksheet on reading a whole information text and answering across it, aligned to Common Core standard RI.3.10. It prints 2 questions with an answer key on its own sheet of paper, in 25 versions that each ask different questions, so no two pupils in the class work from the same page. Print it from the browser or download it as a PDF — no account, no email.

Set 17 of 25 · the same problems every time you open this link.

Next setLesson plan

One paper per pupil

12345678910111213141516171819202122232425

Set 1 has all 25 in a single PDF. All 25 sets ask different questions.

Reading a Grade 3 Fact Text

RI.3.10

NameDate

Read the text, then answer the questions.

1.Read the text, then answer the questions.

Morse Code

Morse code turns every letter into a pattern of short and long signals: dots and dashes. The commonest letters were given the shortest patterns. E is one dot. T is one dash. Q, which is rare, is dash-dash-dot-dash. Because of that choice, an average message is much shorter than it would be otherwise. A message can be sent as sound, as light, or as taps on a pipe. That is why it survived so long: it needs almost no equipment. Timing carries the meaning. A dash is three times as long as a dot. The gap between letters is three dots long, and between words, seven. SOS was chosen because it is easy to recognise: three dots, three dashes, three dots.

  1. 1. The author says Morse survived a long time. What reason is given?
  2. 2. What is the main idea of this text, and which details support it?
  3. 3. How long is a dash compared with a dot?
  4. 4. What is the author's purpose, and how do you know?
2.Read the text, then answer the questions.

The Salmon's Return

A salmon hatches in a river, swims to the sea, and comes back years later to the river it was born in. It finds its way home by smell. Every river carries its own mixture of soil, rock and plants, and a young salmon learns that smell before it leaves. The return journey is upstream. The fish leap waterfalls, sometimes several metres high, and they do not eat once they enter fresh water. Because it is not feeding, a salmon uses up its own body on the climb. By the time it reaches the gravel where it hatched, it is thin and worn. There it lays its eggs. Most Atlantic salmon die soon afterwards.

  1. 1. How does it find its way home?
  2. 2. Where does a salmon hatch?
  3. 3. What is the main idea of this text, and which details support it?
  4. 4. Does a salmon eat on the return journey?

LessonPrint · RI.3.10 · Set 17 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Reading a Grade 3 Fact Text

Set 17. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. It needs almost no equipment — it can be sent as sound, light or taps. 2. Morse turns letters into timed dots and dashes — supported by the letter lengths, the timing rules and SOS. 3. Three times as long. 4. To explain how Morse works and why it was so useful — the whole text gives reasons.
  2. 2.1. By smell. 2. In a river, in gravel. 3. A salmon returns to its birth river to breed — supported by the smell, the upstream climb and the eggs. 4. No — it does not eat once it enters fresh water.

More practice for RI.3.10

Read and understand harder Grade 2-3 information texts on your own.

Teaching this next? Reading Grade 3 Informational Texts is the 40-minute plan for it, with the misconceptions to expect.

All Grade 3 worksheets

Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to RI.3.10 of the Common Core State Standards for English language arts.