Reading Comprehension: The Birthday Surprise

This reading comprehension worksheet features The Birthday Surprise, an original story about courage and a recorder. Grandpa is turning seventy, and Ella secretly practices his favorite song all week, hiding in her room so he cannot hear. At the party she stands up, takes a deep breath, and plays the whole song without one mistake — and Grandpa claps loudest of all and asks for it again. Three multiple-choice questions follow for the child to read, consider, and circle.

The star question here is the third one: how do we know Grandpa likes the song? That phrasing — how do we know — is evidence-hunting, the exact habit teachers spend years building. The story never announces Grandpa's opinion; it shows him clapping loudest and asking for an encore, and the child must recognize those actions as proof. The other questions guard the story's logic: whose birthday it is keeps the two main characters straight, and why Ella practices in her room checks that the child caught the point of the secrecy — a surprise only works if it stays one. Together the three questions walk a reader from plain facts to reading between the lines.

The PDF prints free, and 'what else could show us someone is happy?' extends the evidence game beyond the page. The Little Garden pairs beautifully — another story where quiet daily effort earns its reward — and A Rainy School Day offers one more feelings question to practice on.