6th grade science reading comprehension worksheets

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Sixth grade science reading comprehension worksheets: middle-school passages on cells, the heart, weather fronts, heat and the speed of sound, with five questions each. Students follow a central idea, explain why the author included a detail and connect facts across paragraphs. Answer key included.

Free printable PDF worksheet, aligned to Common Core RI.6.1, RST.6-8.1.

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.

The kind of passages you'll get

Read the passage. Then circle the letter of the best answer for each question.

The Little Rooms in a Slice of Cork

In the early 1660s, an English scientist named Robert Hooke cut a sliver of cork thinner than a sheet of paper and placed it under a microscope. What he saw surprised him. The cork was not solid at all. It was full of tiny empty…

  1. What did Hooke actually see in the cork? the empty walls of dead cells · living creatures swimming in lake water · cells dividing into two new cells · tiny crystals growing in a liquid

    Answer: the empty walls of dead cells

  2. In the passage, what is a botanist? a scientist who studies plants · a doctor who studies sick cells · a merchant who grinds his own lenses · a scientist who studies animal bodies

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 6th grade sheet

6th grade sheets draw from 13 passages, 360 to 409 words long. None of these passages are on 5th grade sheets. On 5th grade sheets they run 283 to 292 words.

Some of the titles: The Spoon That Got Too Hot, The Engine Behind the Rain, Mending the Shield Over Antarctica, The Figure Eight in Your Chest, The Air Makers, The Missing Eclipses.

Every version prints on US Letter or A4, with its answer key on the last page.

How to teach this

Treat each passage like a section of a science textbook. After reading, have your student write the central idea in one sentence, then list the two facts that support it best. The questions ask why the author included a detail, such as an old figure that later turned out wrong, so talk about how science corrects itself. Middle school lab reports ask for the same thing: a claim and the facts behind it.

Watch for: Choosing the answer you already believed instead of the one the passage states. Science passages often correct an everyday idea, so check the line before you circle. Skipping a science word as too hard. The passage explains it nearby, and at least one question depends on it.

Common questions about 6th grade science reading comprehension

Is this a science worksheet or an English worksheet?
Both. It is reading comprehension on science content, and the Common Core literacy standards for science ask middle schoolers to cite evidence from science texts. It fits an English class working on central idea and evidence, or a science class that wants students reading carefully.
How does this prepare students for middle school science?
Middle school science textbooks pack a central idea, several supporting facts and new terms into each section. These passages are built the same way, so practicing the questions here makes the textbook easier to read later.

Related worksheets

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Want a different passage? Print again. Each print picks one of the 13.

Aligned to Common Core RI.6.1, RST.6-8.1. Reviewed by the One more sheet team. Content version 241, updated October 2026.

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