Stress and Mental Health Reading Comprehension Passages — Grade 3

About this resource

A copper rooster on a barn roof gets tugged by every wind at once. These stress and mental health reading comprehension passages give Grade 3 readers ten passages at F&P levels N–P about what stress is, how it shows up, and why big stress is meant to be shared with a trusted grown-up. It’s a Self-Management set that also shows how a little stress can help.

What students practice

• Telling helpful stress from stress that is too big
• Noticing stress clues in the body, mood, thoughts and actions
• Spotting a pattern in overfull weeks
• Sharing big stress with a trusted grown-up
• Comparing stress at school and at home

What’s inside

• 10 passages at F&P levels N–P in ten different text types
• 5 multiple-choice questions per passage, several of them on vocabulary or text structure
• 2 open-ended prompts per passage that ask for written answers
• Answer key for the multiple-choice questions on the last page
• 44 pages

A look inside

• The Weeks After the Baby Came: Lavanya feels left out after her baby brother is born and talks with her aunt, then with her parents.
• Meet Nnamdi: The Kid Who Dropped One Club: Nnamdi notices he feels stressed in every week with four clubs and chooses one to drop.
• Marcel Reads the Morning Announcements: Marcel’s stress feels huge on Monday and has become the helpful kind by Friday.
• A Calmer End to the School Day: a class redesigns a rushed, noisy dismissal with packing time and a clear line order.

How to use these stress and mental health reading passages in Grade 3

• Small-group reading, from level N up to the three level P passages
• SEL lessons: “How to Notice Your Stress Signals” walks through four places to check
• Reading with a partner, then comparing answers to the open-ended prompts
• Checking the multiple-choice answers with the key

Grade fit

Levels move from N to P, and third-grade life supplies the settings: a new sibling, too many clubs, a morning of missing the bus and leaving a homework folder at home. The nonfiction stays modest, such as a science-based passage noting that some studies suggest time with trusted people can help stress feel smaller. These reading passages with questions treat coping skills for stress as something you share, not something you carry alone.

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.

Good to know

Read The Weeks After the Baby Came ahead if a student has a new sibling at home: Lavanya’s parents are busy and tired, and she talks it over with her aunt and then her parents. Across the set, students learn that big stress is meant to be shared and that a trusted grown-up is a good place to turn.

Pairs well with

Keep the ideas going with Stress and Mental Health Task Cards.