The Lonely Swimming Pool Reading Comprehension Worksheet

Reading a poem asks something different of a third grader than reading a story does. The meaning arrives in short lines, the rhyme carries part of the sense, and every word has to earn its place. The Lonely Swimming Pool Reading Comprehension Worksheet puts that work in front of students with an original four-stanza poem told in the voice of the pool itself, watching one season hand over to the next. The question page asks for cause, rhyme, sequence, and main idea, so students have to go back into the lines instead of repeating the first thing they remember.

This 3rd grade poetry worksheet opens with a poem written in four AABB quatrains. In June the pool is full of children. By September the buses have taken them back to school. In October a neighbor nets the maple leaves off the water and pulls the cover tight, and all winter the pool rests, knowing that May will bring everyone running back. Students read the poem on page one, then turn the page for four fill-in-the-bubble questions, one vocabulary-in-context item, and a written response that asks for two details from the text. Read it aloud together the first time so the rhyme is heard, then let students reread on their own before they answer.

What’s Included

• 1 print-ready PDF worksheet
• Answer key
• 1 original 222-word poem in four rhyming stanzas with a full-color illustration
• 4 multiple-choice questions on cause, rhyme, sequence, and main idea
• 1 vocabulary-in-context fill-in item and 1 written response with lines

Three things make this resource useful for building comprehension. First, the rhyme item asks students to hear a pattern and then find it in print, which is exactly how poetry is assessed at this grade. Second, the poem is measured on grade level, so vocabulary and line length never get in the way of thinking about meaning. Third, the written item on The Lonely Swimming Pool Reading Comprehension Worksheet asks students to point at two details that prove their answer, which turns comprehension from a guess into something they can defend out loud.

Teachers and parents can keep the skill going in other ways. Read the poem a second time and have the room clap on the rhyming word at the end of each pair of lines. Ask students to list every clue that tells them which season a stanza describes, then put the four stanzas in order by month. Have partners each choose the line they think sounds best out loud and say why it works. Students can also write a fifth stanza in the same rhyming pattern about the first day the cover comes off in May.

Related Resources

• Rhyming Bear Reading Comprehension Worksheet
• Fun With Poetry Activity
• Finding Rhyming Words Worksheet
• Seasons Song