Kickball Mystery Reading Comprehension

4th Grade ELAReading Comprehension3 pages

About this worksheet

Leo kicks a red ball into the bushes at recess, and it vanishes. In this 4th grade reading comprehension sheet, students read the short mystery, answer three multiple choice questions about the game, the bushes, and the culprit, then do some detective work of their own. The last two questions ask for the clue that solved the case and how the friends felt at the end. It practices RL.4.1, since every answer has to come back to a detail in the story. The third page is an answer key with the three multiple choice answers and model answers for both written questions.

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Curriculum objectives covered

RL.4.1

โ€œRefer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.โ€

The Detective Work questions, where students point to the paw prints as the clue and infer the friends' relief from what happens in the garden.

RL.4.3

โ€œDescribe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., a character's thoughts, words, or actions).โ€

Question 2 of Detective Work asks students to describe how the two characters feel at the end, drawing on the events of the story.

What's inside this worksheet

Read the Story

Students read about Leo and Maya losing their kickball near the school fence, following muddy paw prints, and finding Buster the golden retriever chewing it in the school garden. A cartoon of the dog sits beside the text.

Quick Check

Three multiple choice questions, each with four options: which game they played, where the ball rolled (street, roof, bushes, or puddle), and who took it, with Mr. Jones and Maya as distractors.

Detective Work

Two written questions in full sentences. Students name the evidence (the muddy paw prints) and explain how Leo and Maya probably felt when they found Buster, and why.

How teachers use it

Beginning of the year

With a short story and a simple plot, this works in the first weeks to see who writes full sentences without being reminded. Most students finish in 15 minutes.

Teaching inference

Nothing in the text says how the friends felt, so the second Detective Work question needs an inference. Ask students which words told them the friends were relieved, and list the clues on the board.

Mystery unit kickoff

Use the paw prints to introduce the idea of evidence before you start a longer mystery read aloud. Students can add a column for clues to their reading notebooks.

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