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Determine a Theme is a free printable Grade 4 English worksheet on working a theme out from details rather than being told it, aligned to Common Core standard RL.4.2. It prints 2 questions with an answer key on its own sheet of paper, in 25 versions, 19 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 21 of 25 · the same problems every time you open this link.

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One paper per pupil

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Set 1 has all 25 in a single PDF. 19 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.

Determine a Theme

RL.4.2

NameDate

Read the text, then answer the questions.

1.Read the text, then answer the questions.

The Quarry, Filled

Stanza one: They took the hill away in carts for ninety years, and then they stopped. The hole they left filled up with rain until the rain had reached the top. Stanza two: Now people swim where men once cut. The water hides the ledge, the crane, the drill-marks in the standing rock, the tracks, the shed, the loading lane. Stanza three: The children diving off the edge have never heard the word for it. They call it "the lake". They are not wrong. A thing becomes what people make of it.

  1. 1. Determine a theme of this poem and support it from the text.
2.Read the text, then answer the questions.

The Water Came Up (told by Nell)

I was the one who said it was nothing. The river had been over the path before. Twice that winter. Both times it went down by morning, so when Dad started moving the boxes upstairs I told him he was making a fuss. I went to bed. At two o'clock I woke because my slippers were floating. Everything after that is in pieces. Dad on the stairs with the cat. Water the colour of tea. The sound the fridge made when it went over. We sat on the landing until it got light. Nobody said anything about the boxes. That was worse than if they had.

  1. 1. Determine a theme of this story and support it from the text.

LessonPrint · RL.4.2 · Set 21 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Determine a Theme

Set 21. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. A place is what it is used for now — "A thing becomes what people make of it."
  2. 2.1. Being wrong is worse when nobody blames you — "That was worse than if they had."

More practice for RL.4.2

Work out the theme from the details, then summarise the text.

Teaching this next? Theme and How to Summarise is the 40-minute plan for it, with the misconceptions to expect.

All Grade 4 worksheets

Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to RL.4.2 of the Common Core State Standards for English language arts.