Storm Reading Comprehension Worksheet

This Storm Reading Comprehension Worksheet gives 3rd Grade readers a short original story about two children who wait out an evening thunderstorm with their family. The passage is built for sequencing practice: the events arrive in a clear order, marked by the words first, next, then, after a while, and finally, so students can track what happened and when. It also carries a real weather idea, because the children notice that the gap between each flash of lightning and each roll of thunder keeps growing, which is how they know the storm is moving away.

Page one holds the passage and a warm illustrated scene of the candlelit room during the power outage. Page two holds the questions, and the last page is a complete answer key. The story runs 222 words at a measured third grade reading level, so it fits a single independent reading block without wearing a class out. Hand it out after a rainy morning, use it in a weather unit, or keep it for a guided reading group that needs order-of-events practice.

What’s Included

• One printable Storm Reading Comprehension Worksheet in PDF format
• An original 222 word fiction passage written at a 3rd Grade level
• A full color illustrated scene on the passage page
• Four multiple choice questions on sequence, detail and inference
• One vocabulary in context fill in the blank item
• One written response item with lines
• A complete answer key

Three Reasons This Helps Kids

• The order words are doing real work in the story, so students practice sequencing inside a text instead of on a worksheet of isolated steps.
• Every question can be answered from the passage, which teaches students to go back and find evidence rather than guess from memory.
• The weather detail gives readers a fact they can use the next time a storm rolls through, so the reading connects to something outside the page.

Teacher and Parent Ideas

Before reading, ask students what they do at home when the power goes out. Read the passage once straight through, then read it again and have students underline first, next, then, after a while, and finally. Ask them to retell the storm in five sentences using those five words. The fill in the blank item is a good place to stop and talk about how a writer can show an idea, such as rain getting lighter, with a single well chosen verb. For an extension, students can draw their own storm scene and write three sentences in order underneath it. This third grade reading comprehension worksheet also pairs well with a weather unit on clouds, wind and lightning safety.

Related Resources

• The Weather is Windy Reading Comprehension Worksheet
• The Weather is Cloudy Reading Comprehension Worksheet
• The Weather is Cold Reading Comprehension Worksheet
• Weather Song