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Grade 4 Reading Comprehension
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Nonfiction
Nonfiction Printables
Nonfiction 33 free to print or download.
33 printables
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Nonfiction: The Waggle Dance
Name
Score
Read the passage, then answer the questions.
The Waggle Dance
When a honeybee discovers a rich patch of flowers, it faces a problem.
It must somehow tell the rest of the hive exactly where to find the food.
Bees cannot speak, so a scout uses a special movement called the waggle dance.
Back at the hive, it runs in a figure-eight while shaking its body.
The angle of the dance points the other bees toward the sun and the flowers.
The longer the bee waggles, the farther away the food is.
Thanks to this dance, thousands of bees can find a single flower patch.
Scientists study the waggle dance to understand how animals share information.
1) What problem does a scout bee face?
2) What is the special movement called?
3) What does the angle of the dance show?
4) What does a longer waggle mean?
📖
Reading Worksheet
Nonfiction: The Waggle Dance
Ages 8–11
♡
Nonfiction: Rivers of Ice
Name
Score
Read the passage, then answer the questions.
Rivers of Ice
A glacier is a river of ice that moves so slowly you cannot see it.
It forms high in the mountains where more snow falls than melts each year.
Over hundreds of years, the snow is pressed into thick, solid ice.
Gravity slowly pulls this heavy ice downhill, a little each day.
As the glacier grinds along, it carves valleys and scrapes rock into powder.
When the ice reaches warmer air, its front edge melts and feeds cold rivers.
Glaciers store much of the fresh water on Earth.
1) What is a glacier?
2) Where do glaciers form?
3) What pulls the ice downhill?
4) What do glaciers store?
📖
Reading Worksheet
Nonfiction: Rivers of Ice
Ages 8–11
♡
Nonfiction: The Sky Was Her Road
Name
Score
Read the passage, then answer the questions.
The Sky Was Her Road
Amelia grew up at a time when few people believed women should fly planes.
The first time she rode in an airplane, she knew the sky was where she belonged.
She worked long hours and saved every dollar to pay for flying lessons.
Soon she was breaking records that many pilots thought were impossible.
In 1932 she became the first woman to fly alone across the Atlantic Ocean.
The flight was cold and dangerous, and her plane was battered by storms.
Amelia’s courage encouraged girls everywhere to chase their own big dreams.
1) What did few people believe when Amelia grew up?
2) How did Amelia pay for lessons?
3) What record did she set in 1932?
4) What was her flight like?
📖
Reading Worksheet
Nonfiction: The Sky Was Her Road
Ages 8–11
♡
Nonfiction: When a Mountain Wakes
Name
Score
Read the passage, then answer the questions.
When a Mountain Wakes
For hundreds of years a volcano can sit quietly, seeming like an ordinary mountain.
Deep beneath it, though, melted rock called magma is always building up.
As pressure grows, the ground may swell and small earthquakes rumble.
Scientists watch these warning signs closely to keep nearby towns safe.
When the pressure finally becomes too great, the volcano erupts.
Ash, gas, and glowing lava burst out and reshape the land around it.
After the eruption, rich volcanic soil helps new plants grow.
1) What builds up beneath a volcano?
2) What warning signs appear?
3) Why do scientists watch volcanoes?
4) What grows well in volcanic soil?
📖
Reading Worksheet
Nonfiction: When a Mountain Wakes
Ages 8–11
♡
Nonfiction: How Bridges Hold
Name
Score
Read the passage, then answer the questions.
How Bridges Hold
A bridge must carry heavy loads without bending or breaking.
Engineers use clever shapes to spread the weight safely across the whole bridge.
A beam bridge is simple but can only cross short distances.
An arch bridge pushes the weight outward into strong supports at each end.
A suspension bridge hangs its road from huge cables held by tall towers.
The cables pull the weight up and carry it to the ground through the towers.
By matching the design to the distance, engineers build bridges that last for centuries.
1) What must a bridge do?
2) What kind of bridge is simple but short?
3) How does an arch bridge work?
4) What holds up a suspension bridge’s road?
📖
Reading Worksheet
Nonfiction: How Bridges Hold
Ages 8–11
♡
Nonfiction: The Great Butterfly Journey
Name
Score
Read the passage, then answer the questions.
The Great Butterfly Journey
Each autumn, millions of monarch butterflies begin an astonishing journey.
They fly south for thousands of miles to escape the freezing winter.
No single butterfly has ever made the trip before, yet they never get lost.
Scientists think monarchs use the sun and Earth’s magnetic field to steer.
They gather in the same few forests in Mexico year after year.
There they rest, clustered so thickly that the trees seem to turn orange.
When spring returns, a new generation begins the long journey back north.
1) When do monarchs begin their journey?
2) Why do they fly south?
3) How might monarchs find their way?
4) Where do they gather?
📖
Reading Worksheet
Nonfiction: The Great Butterfly Journey
Ages 8–11
♡
Nonfiction: Sharks: Ancient Survivors
Name
Score
Read the passage, then answer the questions.
Sharks: Ancient Survivors
Sharks have swum in Earth’s oceans for more than 400 million years.
They lived long before the dinosaurs and outlasted them too.
A shark’s skeleton is made of bendy cartilage, not heavy bone.
This makes sharks lighter and faster as they hunt.
Rows of sharp teeth are always ready; when one falls out, another moves forward.
Some sharks can sense the tiny electric signals given off by hidden prey.
These amazing adaptations have helped sharks survive for ages.
1) How long have sharks existed?
2) What is a shark’s skeleton made of?
3) What happens when a tooth falls out?
4) What can some sharks sense?
📖
Reading Worksheet
Nonfiction: Sharks: Ancient Survivors
Ages 8–11
♡
Nonfiction: The Vault of Seeds
Name
Score
Read the passage, then answer the questions.
The Vault of Seeds
Deep inside a frozen mountain near the North Pole sits an unusual bank.
Instead of money, it stores millions of seeds from around the world.
The seeds are kept cold and dry so they can survive for hundreds of years.
If a crop is wiped out by disease, war, or weather, backups wait here.
Countries can send seeds to the vault and take copies when they are needed.
The vault is like an insurance policy for the world’s food.
It helps make sure that future farmers will still have plants to grow.
1) What does this bank store?
2) Where is it located?
3) Why are the seeds kept cold and dry?
4) What is the vault compared to?
📖
Reading Worksheet
Nonfiction: The Vault of Seeds
Ages 8–11
♡
Nonfiction: Seeing with Sound
Name
Score
Read the passage, then answer the questions.
Seeing with Sound
In the dark of night, a bat can catch a tiny insect it cannot even see.
It does this by making high squeaks far too high for people to hear.
The sounds bounce off objects and echo back to the bat’s sharp ears.
From these echoes, the bat learns the size, shape, and distance of everything nearby.
This clever trick is called echolocation.
Dolphins use a similar skill to hunt fish in murky water.
By listening to echoes, these animals build a picture of a world they cannot see.
1) How does a bat catch insects in the dark?
2) What bounces back to the bat?
3) What is this skill called?
4) What other animal uses it?
📖
Reading Worksheet
Nonfiction: Seeing with Sound
Ages 8–11
♡
Nonfiction: Curtains of Light
Name
Score
Read the passage, then answer the questions.
Curtains of Light
On some clear nights near the poles, the sky glows with ribbons of colour.
These shimmering curtains are called the auroras.
They begin with the Sun, which flings out a stream of tiny particles.
When these particles reach Earth, our planet’s magnetic field pulls them toward the poles.
High in the air, the particles crash into gases and make them glow.
Oxygen glows green or red, while nitrogen can shine blue or purple.
For centuries, people have gazed up in wonder at this natural light show.
1) What are the glowing curtains called?
2) Where do the particles come from?
3) What pulls them toward the poles?
4) What makes the colours?
📖
Reading Worksheet
Nonfiction: Curtains of Light
Ages 8–11
♡
Nonfiction: Cities Under the Sea
Name
Score
Read the passage, then answer the questions.
Cities Under the Sea
A coral reef looks like colourful rock, but it is actually alive.
Each reef is built by millions of tiny animals called coral polyps.
The polyps grow hard skeletons that pile up over thousands of years.
These structures become busy homes for a quarter of all ocean creatures.
Fish, turtles, crabs, and sharks all depend on the reef to survive.
When the ocean grows too warm, coral can turn white and die.
Protecting reefs helps protect the countless animals that call them home.
1) What builds a coral reef?
2) How long do reefs take to grow?
3) How much ocean life depends on reefs?
4) What harms coral?
📖
Reading Worksheet
Nonfiction: Cities Under the Sea
Ages 8–11
♡
Main Idea & Details
Name
Score
Read the passage. Write the main idea and three details.
The Waggle Dance
When a honeybee discovers a rich patch of flowers, it faces a problem.
It must somehow tell the rest of the hive exactly where to find the food.
Bees cannot speak, so a scout uses a special movement called the waggle dance.
Back at the hive, it runs in a figure-eight while shaking its body.
The angle of the dance points the other bees toward the sun and the flowers.
The longer the bee waggles, the farther away the food is.
Thanks to this dance, thousands of bees can find a single flower patch.
Scientists study the waggle dance to understand how animals share information.
Main idea:
Detail 1:
Detail 2:
Detail 3:
📖
Reading Worksheet
Main Idea & Details: The Waggle Dance
Ages 8–11
♡
Main Idea & Details
Name
Score
Read the passage. Write the main idea and three details.
Rivers of Ice
A glacier is a river of ice that moves so slowly you cannot see it.
It forms high in the mountains where more snow falls than melts each year.
Over hundreds of years, the snow is pressed into thick, solid ice.
Gravity slowly pulls this heavy ice downhill, a little each day.
As the glacier grinds along, it carves valleys and scrapes rock into powder.
When the ice reaches warmer air, its front edge melts and feeds cold rivers.
Glaciers store much of the fresh water on Earth.
Main idea:
Detail 1:
Detail 2:
Detail 3:
📖
Reading Worksheet
Main Idea & Details: Rivers of Ice
Ages 8–11
♡
Main Idea & Details
Name
Score
Read the passage. Write the main idea and three details.
The Sky Was Her Road
Amelia grew up at a time when few people believed women should fly planes.
The first time she rode in an airplane, she knew the sky was where she belonged.
She worked long hours and saved every dollar to pay for flying lessons.
Soon she was breaking records that many pilots thought were impossible.
In 1932 she became the first woman to fly alone across the Atlantic Ocean.
The flight was cold and dangerous, and her plane was battered by storms.
Amelia’s courage encouraged girls everywhere to chase their own big dreams.
Main idea:
Detail 1:
Detail 2:
Detail 3:
📖
Reading Worksheet
Main Idea & Details: The Sky Was Her Road
Ages 8–11
♡
Main Idea & Details
Name
Score
Read the passage. Write the main idea and three details.
When a Mountain Wakes
For hundreds of years a volcano can sit quietly, seeming like an ordinary mountain.
Deep beneath it, though, melted rock called magma is always building up.
As pressure grows, the ground may swell and small earthquakes rumble.
Scientists watch these warning signs closely to keep nearby towns safe.
When the pressure finally becomes too great, the volcano erupts.
Ash, gas, and glowing lava burst out and reshape the land around it.
After the eruption, rich volcanic soil helps new plants grow.
Main idea:
Detail 1:
Detail 2:
Detail 3:
📖
Reading Worksheet
Main Idea & Details: When a Mountain Wakes
Ages 8–11
♡
Main Idea & Details
Name
Score
Read the passage. Write the main idea and three details.
How Bridges Hold
A bridge must carry heavy loads without bending or breaking.
Engineers use clever shapes to spread the weight safely across the whole bridge.
A beam bridge is simple but can only cross short distances.
An arch bridge pushes the weight outward into strong supports at each end.
A suspension bridge hangs its road from huge cables held by tall towers.
The cables pull the weight up and carry it to the ground through the towers.
By matching the design to the distance, engineers build bridges that last for centuries.
Main idea:
Detail 1:
Detail 2:
Detail 3:
📖
Reading Worksheet
Main Idea & Details: How Bridges Hold
Ages 8–11
Show more (17 left)
More grade 4 reading comprehension
Reading Comprehension
Fiction
Main Idea & Details
Inference & Conclusions
Text Evidence
Summarizing
Author’s Purpose & Structure
Context Clues & Vocabulary
Cause & Effect
Compare & Contrast