Leo's Handmade Gifts: Grade 3 Reading Passage

About this worksheet

With only $3.40 in his piggy bank, Leo follows Grandma's advice and makes every Christmas gift by hand. A free printable 3rd grade short story (150 words) with multiple-choice how many/what/vocabulary questions and a short written answer. Answer key on page 2. Third graders can use it for independent reading practice and to look back in the text for evidence. Red, green and gold make a classic Christmas palette.

On this sheet

Two weeks before Christmas, Leo counted the coins in his piggy bank. He had only three dollars and forty cents. That was not enough to buy presents for everyone in his family. "Gifts don't have to come from a store," Grandma said. "The best ones come from your heart." That gave Leo an idea. For his little sister, Mia, he made a puppet out of an old sock with button eyes. For Mom, he wrote coupons for chores, like "I will set the table without being asked.

Tips for using it

• Add white for snow.
• Before reading, look at the picture and the title together and guess what the passage will be about.
• Ask your child to underline the sentence in the passage that proves each answer.
• Talk about the story afterwards: what was the problem, how was it solved, and what would your child have done?

Printing tips

Download the PDF and print at 100% (or “fit to page” on A4). Page 1 is the worksheet and page 2 is the answer key with the answers in red; print just page 1 if you want to keep the answers for checking. Free for personal, family and classroom use.