The 5th grade reading comprehension activities below are coordinated with the 5th grade spelling words curriculum on a week-to-week basis, so both can be used together as part of a comprehensive program, or each can be used separately. The worksheets include fifth grade appropriate reading passages and related questions. Each worksheet (as well as the spelling words) also includes a cross-curricular focus on earth science, physical science, history, social sciences, or life sciences. This allows students to build their reading comprehension skills and reinforce knowledge in other subject areas. There are 36 weeks of fifth grade worksheets, following most standard school year calendars.
Please Note: Revised worksheets were recently posted (March 2012) after discovering a few errors. We’re sorry about the inconvenience. K12reader.com relies on teachers and parents to help improve the quality of worksheets. Please contact us here if you notice any inaccuracies. Thank you!
5th Grade Reading Comprehension Worksheets
Click on the title of each worksheets to download the printable PDF. Students should read each passage and then answer related questions.
Week 1 Reading Comprehension (E-1)Cross-Curricular Focus: History / Social Sciences
From Nomad to Farmer
A non-fiction passage and comprehension questions about the earliest North American nomads
Week 2 Reading Comprehension (E-2)Cross-Curricular Focus: Life Science
What’s in Your Cells?
This passage describes how living things are made up of cells, and cells have specific structure
Week 3 Reading Comprehension (E-3)Cross-Curricular Focus: History / Social Sciences
Customs and Traditions
Reading passage and questions about the customs and traditions of native American Indian groups in North America
Week 4 Reading Comprehension (E-4)Cross-Curricular Focus: Life Science
Tissues, Organs and Systems
Multi-cellular organisms have many cells that work together in specific ways, each group performing certain activities.
Week 5 Reading Comprehension (E-5)Cross-Curricular Focus: Life Science
Active and Passive Transport
This reading segment describes how a membrane allows things to move in and out of the cell.
Week 6 Reading Comprehension (E-6)Cross-Curricular Focus: History / Social Sciences
Bartering for Basics
A passage about early Native American Indian groups and how they bartered for goods.
Week 7 Reading Comprehension (E-7)Cross-Curricular Focus: Mathematics
Prime or Composite?
Reading passage and comprehension questions about prime and composite numbers.
Week 8 Reading Comprehension (E-8)Cross-Curricular Focus: Life Science
Plants Are Producers
An outline and questions about how plants use light from the sun, water, and carbon dioxide to produce food.
Week 9 Reading Comprehension (E-9)Cross-Curricular Focus: Life Science
Xylem and Phloem
A reading segment and questions about vascular tissue inside a plant’s organs.
Week 10 Reading Comprehension (E-10)Cross-Curricular Focus: Life Science
Oxygen Exchange
A comprehension passage and questions about how respiratory systems work.
Week 11 Reading Comprehension (E-11)Cross-Curricular Focus: Life Science
It Circulates
Passage and questions about the circulatory system, a transport system of the human body.
Week 12 Reading Comprehension (E-12)Cross-Curricular Focus: History / Social Sciences
Absolute Location
A segment about how latitude and longitude is used for navigation.
Week 13 Reading Comprehension (E-13)Cross-Curricular Focus: History / Social Sciences
Colonization: for Gold, God, and Glory
A passage and questions about early exploration and colonization.
Week 14 Reading Comprehension (E-14)Cross-Curricular Focus: Life Science
Down the Hatch
This reading segment outlines how the digestive system is made up of a group of organs that work together.
Week 15 Reading Comprehension (E-15)Cross-Curricular Focus: Science
Fungi are Alive
A reading passage that explains fungi and how different types of fungi can be used.
Week 16 Reading Comprehension (E-16)Cross-Curricular Focus: Mathematics
Exponential Notation
A passage about exponential notation, also known as scientific notation as a way to represent numbers.
Week 17 Reading Comprehension (E-17)Cross-Curricular Focus: Life Science
Excretory System
How the excretory system regulates the amount of water that you have in your body and helps remove waste.
Week 18 Reading Comprehension (E-18)Cross-Curricular Focus: History / Social Sciences
Conflict Over North American Lands
A passage about the time between the early 15th century and the mid 17th century.
Week 19 Reading Comprehension (E-19)Cross-Curricular Focus: Mathematics
Simplifying Fractions
A math reading passage about simplifying fractions.
Week 20 Reading Comprehension (E-20)Cross-Curricular Focus: Language Arts
Making Predictions
A language arts reading passage providing suggestions for making predictions.
Week 21 Reading Comprehension (E-21)Cross-Curricular Focus: History / Social Sciences
Rocky Relationships
A passage and questions about the relationship between European colonists and the native American people.
Week 22 Reading Comprehension (E-22)Cross-Curricular Focus: Earth Science
The Inner Planets
An earth science reading passage about the inner planets, those closest to the sun.
Week 23 Reading Comprehension (E-23)Cross-Curricular Focus: Earth Science
Water Water Everywhere
A reading segment about earth’s most precious resource.
Week 24 Reading Comprehension (E-24)Cross-Curricular Focus: History / Social Sciences
Broken Promises
A passage about how history’s story is a never-ending struggle for control over land.
Week 25 Reading Comprehension (E-25)Cross-Curricular Focus: Earth Science
Water Cycle
A reading passage about water’s three different forms or states: solid, liquid, gas.
Week 26 Reading Comprehension (E-26)Cross-Curricular Focus: Mathematics
Converting Fractions to Decimals
A math segment about converting fractions to decimals.
Week 27 Reading Comprehension (E-27)Cross-Curricular Focus: Earth Science
Convection Currents
A passage about convection currents, loops of moving air or water that transfer energy.
Week 28 Reading Comprehension (E-28)Cross-Curricular Focus: History / Social Sciences
Indentured Servants
A passage describing how indentured servants became common on large plantations.
Week 29 Reading Comprehension (E-29)Cross-Curricular Focus: Earth Science
Stalagmite Stalactite
A segment and related comprehension questions about stalagmites and stalactites
Week 30 Reading Comprehension (E-30)Cross-Curricular Focus: Earth Science
Meteorologists
An outline of meteorology, the scientific study of the weather.
Week 31 Reading Comprehension (E-31)Cross-Curricular Focus: History / Social Sciences
Escaping Persecution
How some settlers who came to the English colonies in North America tried to escape religious persecution
Week 32 Reading Comprehension (E-32)Cross-Curricular Focus: Earth Science
Atmospheric Layers
A segment about how Earth’s atmosphere is made up of several layers of gases in different mixtures.
Week 33 Reading Comprehension (E-33)Cross-Curricular Focus: Earth Science
Extreme Weather
A passage and questions about how severe storms happen in low-pressure weather systems.
Week 34 Reading Comprehension (E-34)Cross-Curricular Focus: History / Social Sciences
Apprentice System
A passage about the apprentice system practiced in early North America.
Week 35 Reading Comprehension (E-35)Cross-Curricular Focus: History / Social Sciences
Dear King George
A reading segment about the writing of the Declaration of Independence.
Week 36 Reading Comprehension (E-36)Cross-Curricular Focus: Physical Science
It’s Elemental
A comprehension passage and questions about matter and elements.