Clay Day Predictions Worksheet

Predicting is a reading skill, not a guessing game. A strong prediction is built from clues the writer has already set down, and a reader has to be able to point at them. This Clay Day Predictions Worksheet hands second graders a short classroom story that stops one beat before the ending, then asks them what happens next and which words in the text told them so.

Joshua spends art class shaping a lump of gray clay into a sleeping cat. Clara, working across the table, explains the rule the whole story turns on: wet clay is soft and bends, dry clay turns hard and holds its shape, and the warm shelf by the window dries clay the fastest. Joshua leaves his cat on that sunny shelf and goes to lunch. The story ends as he reaches for it. Four multiple-choice questions follow, and each one has a single defensible answer: one asks what he built, one asks how Clara prepared her clay, one checks the stated rule about wet clay, and the last asks for the prediction itself. A written response closes this 2nd grade predictions worksheet, and a full answer key is included.

What’s Included

• 1 print-ready PDF worksheet
• Answer key
• An original 170-word story that stops before its ending, with an illustration
• 4 multiple-choice questions on detail, evidence and prediction
• 1 written response question with ruled writing lines

There are three reasons this resource helps children learn to predict. First, the story states its rule plainly and then puts that rule to work, so a student has to carry information forward across paragraphs instead of recalling a single line. Second, the questions in this Clay Day Predictions Worksheet ask for the clue as well as the outcome, which is the habit that separates a supported claim from a lucky guess. Third, the written response asks for two details, so children rehearse explaining their thinking the way a reading assessment will ask them to.

Teachers and parents can stretch the skill well past this page. Stop halfway through any read-aloud and ask what happens next, then ask what in the book made you think so. Write the class prediction on the board, keep reading, and go back at the end to see which clue held up. Cover the last panel of a comic strip and let children draw their own ending, then compare. Try it with a real science moment too, like clay or paint drying on a sunny windowsill, and let children watch their prediction come true.

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