Marcus and the Giant Pumpkin: Grade 3 Reading Passage
Marcus plants pumpkin seeds in May, cares for the vines all summer and brings an 82-pound pumpkin to the fall festival. A free printable 3rd grade short story (158 words) with multiple-choice when/why/vocabulary questions, events to number in order and a short written answer. Answer key on page 2.
- Size
- US Letter (8.5 × 11 in), fits A4
- 2 pages: the worksheet and its answer key
- Level
- Grade 3
- License
- Free for personal & classroom use
About this worksheet
Marcus plants pumpkin seeds in May, cares for the vines all summer and brings an 82-pound pumpkin to the fall festival. A free printable 3rd grade short story (158 words) with multiple-choice when/why/vocabulary questions, events to number in order and a short written answer. Answer key on page 2. It is aimed at third grade readers, around ages 8 to 9.
On this sheet
In May, Marcus planted three pumpkin seeds in a sunny corner of the backyard. His goal was to grow the biggest pumpkin on his street for the fall festival. Growing a pumpkin takes patience. For the first week, nothing happened. Then tiny green sprouts poked out of the soil. Marcus watered them every evening and pulled weeds so the plants had room to grow. By July, long vines covered the corner of the yard, and bright yellow flowers appeared.
Tips for using it
- 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. The PNG shows page 1 only. Free for personal, family and classroom use.
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