Free Grade 4 Reading Comprehension Worksheet & Answers

Every autumn, millions of monarch butterflies begin a spectacular journey. Because these delicate insects cannot survive the freezing winter temperatures of North America, they migrate south to the warmer climate of Mexico. This incredible trip can be up to 3,000 miles long! The most amazing part of this migration is that the butterflies making the journey have never been to Mexico before. They use the position of the sun and the Earth’s magnetic field to navigate perfectly to the exact same forests their ancestors visited the year before.

Leo sneezed as a cloud of dust swirled around him. It was raining outside, so he had decided to explore his grandparents’ crowded attic. Tucked beneath an old, moth-eaten blanket, he spotted a heavy wooden chest with rusted iron hinges. With a loud creak, Leo pushed the lid open. Inside, resting on a bed of velvet, was a shiny brass compass and a cracked leather journal. The journal belonged to his great-grandfather, a famous sailor who had traveled the world. Leo carefully opened the fragile pages, eager to read about his family’s adventures on the high seas.

Coral reefs are sometimes called the “rainforests of the sea” because they are teeming with diverse life. Even though coral looks like colorful, hard rock, it is actually made up of thousands of tiny, soft-bodied animals called polyps. These polyps build hard limestone skeletons to protect themselves, which eventually form massive reefs over thousands of years. Reefs provide essential shelter and food for a quarter of all marine species, including clownfish, sea turtles, and reef sharks. Unfortunately, pollution and rising ocean temperatures are threatening these fragile underwater cities.

Maya’s neighborhood had a vacant dirt lot that was always filled with weeds and trash. One Saturday, Maya and her fourth-grade class decided to transform the ugly lot into a beautiful community garden. The students spent the entire weekend pulling weeds, picking up garbage, and turning the hard soil with shovels. The next week, they planted rows of carrot, tomato, and sunflower seeds. It took months of patient watering and weeding, but by late summer, the neighborhood had fresh, juicy vegetables to share with everyone.

Before smartphones or even rotary dials, long-distance communication was extremely difficult. That changed in 1876 when an inventor named Alexander Graham Bell successfully transmitted human speech over a wire. Bell had been experimenting with acoustic telegraphy with his assistant, Thomas Watson. During an experiment, Bell spilled battery acid on his pants and yelled into the device, “Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you.” Watson, who was in another room, heard the voice clearly through the receiver. This accidental emergency became the first successful telephone call in history!