Anxiety and Worry Reading Comprehension Passages — Grade 3

About this resource

What does a worry actually feel like, and what can a third grader do about it? These anxiety and worry reading comprehension passages answer both questions in ten texts for Grade 3 at F&P levels N–P. Readers meet a mole with a backpack full of what-ifs, a school nurse who listens, and a girl who turns a fear of thunderstorms into storm facts, building Self-Management as they go.

What students practice

• Sorting what-ifs you can do something about
• Recognizing that worry can show up as an ache
• Setting worries aside for a daily worry time
• Understanding fight, flight and freeze
• Sharing a worry instead of hiding it

What’s inside

• 10 passages at F&P levels N–P that get a little harder as students move through them
• 5 multiple-choice questions per passage, checking word meanings and how the text is built
• 2 questions per passage for a written answer
• MCQ answer key on the last page
• 44 pages

A look inside

• Nurse Castillo, the Worry Listener: he checks a student’s body first, then explains that worry can show up in the body.
• The Mole With a Backpack of What-Ifs: Bix the beetle helps Crumb sort the worries he can act on.
• How to Use Worry Time: write worries down at a set time and save the rest for later.
• Fight, Flight, or Freeze: the body’s three protect responses, and why freezing up is normal.
• Two Hikers, One Swinging Bridge: one hiker hides the worry and turns back, the other tells his mom.

How to use these anxiety and worry reading passages in Grade 3

• Guided reading at levels N to P
• SEL lessons that start from a passage like “Worry, Fear, and Nervous”
• Partner discussions using the takeaway at the end of each text
• Independent practice, with the multiple-choice answers in the key

Grade fit

Third graders can start to name the difference between worry, fear and nervousness, and this set gives them the words. These reading passages with questions run two pages each at levels N to P, with situations like reading a poem aloud, a grandpa’s six-week trip and teachers sharing the worries they had as kids.

Digital version

With the interactive digital version, you share one link and students read each passage and answer the questions on any device, with no student logins. At the end they download an answer sheet to hand in.

Pairs well with

Build more coping skills for anxiety with Anxiety and Worry Conversation Cards or Anxiety and Worry Scenario Cards.