Patterns of Events is a free printable Grade 4 English worksheet on recognising a shared pattern across stories, aligned to Common Core standard RL.4.9. It prints 2 questions with an answer key on its own sheet of paper, in 25 versions, 24 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 1 of 25 · the same problems every time you open this link.
24 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.
Patterns of Events
RL.4.9
NameDate
Read the text, then answer the questions.
1.Read the text, then answer the questions.
The Clock That Was Wrong
The church clock in our village had been four minutes fast for thirty years.
Everybody knew. The bus timetable was written around it. Weddings started on it. My grandmother set her oven by it, four minutes back.
Then the council paid a specialist to come and correct it.
He was there two days. When he left, the clock was exact.
Within a month, three people had missed the bus, the choir arrived late twice, and my grandmother burned a cake she had made two hundred times. The vicar wrote to the council. In March they set it four minutes fast again.
1. How is its ending different from "The Lost Ledger"?
2. How is this story like "The Lost Ledger"?
2.Read the text, then answer the questions.
Daedalus and Icarus
Daedalus was the finest craftsman in the world, and King Minos kept him prisoner because of it. He and his son Icarus were shut in a tower above the sea.
Daedalus watched the gulls for a summer. Then he gathered feathers, laid them in rows from short to long, and bound them with wax and thread into two pairs of wings.
"Fly in the middle," he told Icarus. "Too low and the sea spray soaks the feathers. Too high and the sun softens the wax."
They rose from the tower together. For a while Icarus followed exactly.
Then the boy found that he could climb. He forgot the tower, the sea, the warning. He went up, and up, until the wax ran and the feathers came away one at a time and the sky let go of him.
Daedalus flew on alone. He never made anything again.
1. How is Daedalus's ending different from Athene's in the Arachne myth?
2. How is Icarus like Arachne?
LessonPrint · RL.4.9 · Set 1 · free to copy for classroom use
Answer key — Patterns of Events
Set 1. Prints on its own sheet.
1.1. The village restores its fast clock deliberately; the daughter tears the ledger pages out and accepts the loss. 2. Both are about a small error — a fast clock, an unpaid ledger — that has become part of how the village works.
2.1. Daedalus loses what he loves and stops; Athene has the power and uses it as a punishment. 2. Both push a gift too far without heeding a warning — Icarus climbs, Arachne challenges Athene.
Questions about Patterns of Events
What does the Patterns of Events worksheet cover?
It practises recognising a shared pattern across stories — 2 questions for Grade 4, all on Common Core RL.4.9: Compare how different cultures handle the same theme or story pattern. The instruction to pupils is “Read the text, then answer the questions”, and the answer key follows on the next sheet.
Which Common Core standard does Patterns of Events practise?
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.9 — RL.4.9, in the Reading: Literature domain for Grade 4. The published standard reads: “Compare and contrast the treatment of similar themes and topics (e.g., opposition of good and evil) and patterns of events (e.g., the quest) in stories, myths, and traditional literature from different cultures.” The worksheet assesses that standard rather than a paraphrase of it.
What age or grade is this worksheet for?
Patterns of Events is written for Grade 4, typically ages 9-10. It is one of the sheets on RL.4.9, so it suits any pupil working at that standard — including older pupils revisiting it and younger ones working ahead.
Does Patterns of Events come with an answer key?
Yes. All 2 answers are generated from the same problems as the questions, so the key cannot drift out of step with the sheet. It starts on a fresh sheet of paper, after the questions, so it is not handed out with the class by accident.
How many different versions of Patterns of Events can I print?
25 versions, of which 24 ask genuinely different questions — this skill does not have 25 distinct questions to give, so the rest reorder them and no two pupils still share a paper. Set 1 downloads all 25 as one PDF.
Is Patterns of Events free to print and photocopy?
Yes. Patterns of Events, its answer key and its 25 versions are free to print and photocopy for your own class, with no account, no email capture and no subscription at the download step. Please do not resell them or republish them as your own.
More practice for RL.4.9
Compare how different cultures handle the same theme or story pattern.