Reading a Grade 3 Story is a free printable Grade 3 English worksheet on reading a whole Grade 3 text and answering across it, aligned to Common Core standard RL.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 6 of 25 · the same problems every time you open this link.

One paper per pupil

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

Reading a Grade 3 Story

RL.3.10

NameDate

Read the text, then answer the questions.

1.Read the text, then answer the questions.

Why Anansi Has Thin Legs

Long ago Anansi the spider had eight fat legs, and a nose for other people's cooking. One morning he smelled beans at Rabbit's house. "Tie a web to my leg," he told Rabbit, "and tug it when the beans are ready." Rabbit agreed. Then Anansi smelled fish at Monkey's, and yams at Guinea Fowl's, and soup at Warthog's. To each he said the same thing. By noon he had eight webs tied to eight legs. At noon every pot was ready at once. Eight tugs came together. The webs pulled so hard that Anansi's legs stretched thin as thread — and he got no dinner at all. They have been thin ever since.

1. How do Anansi's actions cause the ending?
2. What is the central message of this tale?
3. "A nose for other people's cooking" — what does this really mean?
4. What did Anansi ask each neighbour to do?

2.Read the text, then answer the questions.

The Violin in the Loft

Nobody in our family plays anything. So the violin in the loft was a mystery for eleven years. Then Great-Aunt Sylvie came for Christmas and saw the case on the table. She went very quiet. "That was my brother's," she said. "He played in a café in Marseille before the war." She opened it. Three strings had gone, and the bridge lay loose in the bottom of the case. She did not play it. She held it under her chin for about ten seconds, put it back, and closed the lid. Then she asked for more potatoes and did not mention it again.

1. Whose violin was it?
2. Describe Great-Aunt Sylvie from what she does rather than what she says.
3. What is the central message of this story?
4. The violin was "a mystery for eleven years". Is that literal?

LessonPrint · RL.3.10 · Set 6 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Reading a Grade 3 Story

Set 6. Prints on its own sheet.

1.1. Because he made eight arrangements, all eight tugs came at once and stretched his legs. 2. Wanting everything at once can leave you with nothing — Anansi arranged eight dinners and ate none. 3. It means he was very good at finding out where food was, not that his nose was unusual. 4. Tie a web to his leg and tug it when the food was ready.
2.1. Great-Aunt Sylvie's brother's. 2. Private and reserved — she shows feeling by going quiet and holding the violin, then changes the subject. 3. Some feelings are shown by what a person does not say — Sylvie held the violin and asked for potatoes. 4. Partly — nobody knew whose it was, so it was genuinely unexplained, described as a mystery.

More practice for RL.3.10

Read and understand harder Grade 2-3 stories, plays and poems on your own.

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

All Grade 3 worksheets

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