Characters and setting worksheets

Each click picks one of the 26 passages written for this grade. Every sheet comes with its answer key. You don't need to sign up.

Every story answers three questions: who is it about, where does it happen, and when? The characters are the who. The setting is the where and when.

Four grades, each its own sheet. Print one here, or open a grade for examples and teaching notes.

Print by grade

  1. Kindergarten

    Examples and teaching notes

    Kindergarten characters and setting worksheets use stories of 40 to 75 words, made for reading aloud together. Four questions ask who the story is about, where and when it happens, and one big thing that happens. Every answer is said in the story, and the choices are short enough to read with your child.

  2. 1st grade

    Examples and teaching notes

    First grade characters and setting worksheets pair a short story with questions that ask who the story is about, where it happens, and when. The answers sit right in the story, and the wrong choices name people and places the story never visits.

  3. 2nd grade Core grade

    Examples and teaching notes

    Each click picks one of the 26 passages written for this grade. Every sheet comes with its answer key. You don't need to sign up.

    Second grade passages add detail: more than one character, and settings built from clues like fog, sunset, or the first day of school. Questions start asking which words in the story paint the place, not just what the place is called.

  4. 3rd grade

    Examples and teaching notes

    Third grade stories give characters wants and habits, and the setting starts doing work: a storm that changes plans, a room that means something to the people in it. Questions connect who and where to what happens.

More on comprehension skills

All reading comprehension worksheets →

Or all English worksheets: every grade, every topic.