The Message and How It Is Carried is a free printable Grade 3 English worksheet on naming the message and the details that convey it, aligned to Common Core standard RL.3.2. It prints 2 questions with an answer key on its own sheet of paper, in 25 versions, 20 of them with 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 3 of 25 · the same problems every time you open this link.
Set 1 has all 25 in a single PDF. 20 of these 25 sets ask different questions — this skill does not have 25 questions to give. The rest reorder them, so no two pupils have the same paper in front of them.
The Message and How It Is Carried
RL.3.2
NameDate
Read the text, then answer the questions.
1.Read the text, then answer the questions.
The Museum Key (a scene from a play)
SCENE TWO. The museum store room. Night. Boxes everywhere. A single desk lamp.
PRIYA: (whispering) It was here on Tuesday. On this shelf.
JON: You are sure it was this shelf?
PRIYA: I dusted it. I am sure.
JON: (lifting a lid) Then somebody moved it after Tuesday.
PRIYA: Or before Tuesday, and I dusted the empty space.
(Pause. JON puts the lid down slowly.)
JON: That is worse.
PRIYA: I know.
1. What is this scene really about?
2.Read the text, then answer the questions.
The Fox and the Well
A fox leaned too far over a well and fell in. The water was shallow, but the walls were smooth and far too high to climb.
He was still sitting there when a goat came by and looked down.
"Is the water good?" asked the goat.
"The best I have ever tasted," said the fox. "Come down and see."
The goat jumped in. The fox climbed onto the goat's back, sprang out, and trotted off.
"Wait!" called the goat. "How do I get out?"
"You should have thought about that," said the fox, "before you jumped."
1. What is the moral of this fable?
LessonPrint · RL.3.2 · Set 3 · free to copy for classroom use
Answer key — The Message and How It Is Carried
Set 3. Prints on its own sheet.
1.1. How much you can trust your own memory of something ordinary.
2.1. Look before you leap — the goat jumped in without asking how he would get out.
Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to RL.3.2 of the Common Core State Standards for English language arts.