Sean’s New Friend Reading Comprehension Worksheet

Friendship is easier to understand when a story shows it, and this Sean’s New Friend Reading Comprehension Worksheet gives third graders a short, warm passage to read closely. Sean makes a new friend at school named Ari, and one spring day Ari invites him home for Passover. Sean has never been to a seder, so everything is new: the long table, the story of Moses leading his people to freedom, the flat crunchy matzah, the bitter herbs that make his eyes water, and the sweet mix of apples and nuts. Along the way students meet an idea that reading tests ask about all the time, which is that something in a story can stand for something else.

This printable Sean’s New Friend Reading Comprehension Worksheet is built the way a reading assessment is built. Page one holds the illustrated passage, and page two holds six questions students answer from the text. Four multiple choice items cover who, what, where and what the bitter food stands for. One fill-in item asks for a single word from the passage, and the last item is a short written response about why Sean was smiling on the ride home. The questions ask students to find evidence rather than remember a fact from the first sentence, and a complete answer key is included on the last page.

What’s Included

• A 225-word original fiction passage about a new friend and a Passover seder
• An illustrated scene of the seder table on the passage page
• Four multiple-choice questions with fill-in-the-bubble answers
• One fill-in-the-word item and one written response item
• A complete answer key page

Three Reasons This Helps Kids

• The passage is written at a third grade reading level, so students practice comprehension without fighting the words.
• Questions move from recall to inference, which is exactly the range a state reading test uses.
• The story builds understanding of a holiday a classmate may celebrate, and kindness toward a friend who does things differently.

Teacher and Parent Ideas

Use this 3rd grade holiday reading comprehension worksheet during a spring unit, as a guided reading passage, or as a quick assessment. Read the passage aloud once, then have students reread it on their own and underline the sentence that answers each question. Partners can compare the evidence they underlined before checking the key. For writing practice, ask students to describe a tradition from their own family the way Sean describes the seder.

Related Resources

• Holidays Reading Comprehension Worksheet
• Holidays by Season Reading Comprehension Worksheet
• Holiday Time Reading Comprehension Worksheet
• Context Clues Song