The First President of the United States Reading Comprehension Worksheet

This The First President of the United States Reading Comprehension Worksheet gives fifth graders a two-page nonfiction biography of George Washington and then asks them to prove they read it. The passage starts where most accounts do not, with a seventeen-year-old carrying a measuring chain into the Virginia woods as a land surveyor, and follows the two habits that job taught him: write everything down, and finish what you start. From there it traces the army he agreed to lead without pay, the winter at Valley Forge, the day in Annapolis when he handed his commission back, the convention that wrote the Constitution, and the choice at the end of eight years in office to simply go home.

That last decision is the spine of the text, and the questions are built on it. Students state the main idea of the whole passage, pull a defined term straight from the text, trace a cause to its effect, and then apply what they read to a situation the passage never names. A written response asks them to find both times Washington gave power back and explain what those two choices show, with a detail from the text for support. The First President of the United States Reading Comprehension Worksheet prints as four pages in all: two of passage, one of questions, and a complete answer key with sample responses.

What’s Included

• A two-page nonfiction biography of the first president, written for fifth grade
• An illustrated hero scene of a colonial Virginia farm and a surveyor’s tripod
• Four multiple choice questions covering main idea, vocabulary, cause and effect, and application
• One written response asking students to explain two choices and support the answer
• A complete answer key with sample written responses

Three Reasons This Helps Kids

• Nonfiction stamina. A biography that runs across two pages asks a reader to hold facts in order, which is what a reading test actually measures.
• Words defined in context. Surveyor, commission, and Constitution are each explained in the sentence that introduces them, so students practice the exact vocabulary move assessments ask for.
• Evidence over recall. Every question can be answered from the passage, so students learn to go back and look instead of guessing from memory.

Teacher and Parent Ideas

• Read page one aloud together, then let students finish the second page on their own.
• Have students underline the sentence that answers each question before filling in a bubble.
• Use the written response as a short discussion first, then have students write it.
• Pair this 5th grade presidents worksheet with a February holiday unit or a wider study of early American history.
• Ask students to list the two habits the surveying job taught him and find where each one shows up later in the text.

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• George Washington Story Worksheet
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