2nd Grade Reading Comprehension Worksheets

These 2nd grade reading comprehension worksheets have 12 passages written for this book, one per sheet, each followed by four questions a child answers from the text. Six are stories and six are true passages about things second graders ask about: how bees make honey, why leaves change color, penguins, the water cycle, the moon and how frogs grow up. Each passage runs 75 to 87 words, longer than our first grade set, with sentences that join two ideas with because, so or then.

What the questions ask

Three questions on every sheet are tick the box, with three choices, and the fourth is a short written answer. Every answer is in the passage, which was checked by script, so a child who rereads can always find it. The questions go past simple recall. In The Lost Library Book, a child has to connect where Maya had been reading with where the book finally turns up. In Leo’s First Bike Ride, the last question asks what Leo found out when he turned around, which means following the whole story to its end.

Stories and true passages side by side

In second grade, children start using reading to find things out, so it helps to practice both kinds of text. A story asks who, where and how someone felt. A true passage asks how something works and in what order. How Bees Make Honey and Frogs Grow Up are both about steps that happen in a set order, from nectar to wax cells and from egg to tadpole to frog.

What is in the 14 pages

• A cover page with what the book holds.
• 12 passages, each with three tick the box questions, one written answer and a box to draw a picture where there is room.
• An answer key on the last page, passage by passage.

Using the worksheets

Let the child read the passage once alone, then once aloud, before turning to the questions. One sheet a day takes about fifteen minutes. If the passages feel long, start with the 1st grade reading comprehension worksheets, and for a seasonal set at the same level, try the Thanksgiving reading comprehension passages. A printable reading log helps keep the habit going between sheets.

Print at 100% scale. The book comes as an A4 PDF and a US Letter PDF with the same pages, in black ink only.

Printing this one correctly

In your printer dialog set Scale to 100% or Actual size, not Fit to page. Fit to page shrinks the tracing letters and they stop matching the size a child's hand is learning.

Plain paper is fine for crayons and pencils. If your child uses felt pens, 100 gsm paper stops the ink bleeding to the next sheet.