3rd grade making predictions worksheets
Third grade passages hold more moving parts, and the questions ask for the prediction AND its support: what will happen, which clue points there, and what a character will probably decide. The stories still stop before the ending, because the ending is your child's job.
Free printable PDF worksheet.
Each click picks one of the 13 passages written for this grade. Every sheet comes with its answer key. You don't need to sign up.
Need one more? These are the skills next door at this grade.
The kind of passages you'll get
Read the passage. Then circle the letter of the best answer for each question.
First Frost
The radio said it plainly: clear skies tonight, and the first freezing temperatures of fall. Nonna heard it from the kitchen, and her garden heard it from Nonna a moment later. "The tomatoes!" she said. A single frosty night kills tomato plants down to the…
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What will Nonna most likely do with the sheets?
cover the tomato plants for the night · hang them on the clothesline to dry · wrap herself against the cold · cover the kitchen windows
Answer: cover the tomato plants for the night
- What will happen to covered plants tonight? the frost will not touch them · they will freeze anyway in the cold · they will ripen instantly · they will grow taller by the morning
Each print picks one of the 13 passages written for this grade, and its questions come with it. With 13 to pick from, a second print can land on one you've used, so check the title before you hand it out.
What's on a 3rd grade sheet
3rd grade sheets draw from 13 passages, 90 to 106 words long. All 13 are on 2nd grade sheets too, along with 13 more.
Some of the titles: Clouds over the Cornfield, Feeding Time at the Aquarium, The Shortcut Across the Ice, The Library Hold, The Dandelion Watch, Grandpa Can't Find His Glasses.
- Reading passage. Read the passage. Then circle the letter of the best answer for each question. One passage per sheet, with its own question set.
Every version prints on US Letter or A4, with its answer key on the last page.
How to teach this
Wrong answers on these sheets are usually possible but unsupported. When your child hesitates, have them test each option against the passage: which one did the author prepare? Authors plant clues on purpose; good readers notice the planting.
Watch for: A prediction is not a wish. Kids pick the ending they WANT instead of the one the clues support. Ask: which clue says so? Wild endings feel fun but score wrong. The best prediction is the boring one the passage has been setting up all along.
Common questions about 3rd grade making predictions
- How do third grade questions differ?
- They pair every prediction with its evidence: what happens next, and which clue says so. Some also ask what a character will decide, which adds people to the physics.
- Where does this skill lead?
- Straight into inference, which is its quieter cousin. Predicting looks forward from clues; inferring looks underneath them. Practicing one strengthens the other.
Related worksheets
- 2nd grade making predictions A step easier, same skill
- 3rd grade animal reading comprehension Same grade, nearby skill
- 3rd grade author's purpose Same grade, nearby skill
- 3rd grade cause and effect Same grade, nearby skill
- 3rd grade character traits Same grade, nearby skill
- Making predictions, all grades The full progression
- All 3rd grade English worksheets Every skill at this level
- All 3rd grade worksheets Everything at this level
Ready to print one?
Want a different passage? Print again. Each print picks one of the 13.
Reviewed by the One more sheet team. Content version 241, updated October 2026.
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