The Missing Note

This worksheet engages students in Grades 3, 4, and 5 by combining vocabulary development, reading comprehension, inference, and context analysis within a short detective-style story. As students follow the mystery, they examine how multiple-meaning words influence understanding of the plot, encouraging close reading, critical thinking, and thoughtful interpretation of language.

Academic Focus

• Reading Comprehension (Grades 3-5) – Analyze a narrative text to understand events, clues, and outcomes.
• Multiple-Meaning Word Interpretation – Identify homonyms such as note, key, and word and explain their different meanings.
• Critical Thinking & Inference – Use textual evidence to infer meaning and solve the mystery.
• Story Analysis – Examine how word choice and meaning affect plot development.

Instructional Support

• Teacher-Created Resource – Designed by educators to align with elementary ELA standards.
• Engaging Narrative Format – Detective-style storytelling motivates students and supports sustained attention.
• Guided Comprehension Questions – Helps students explain reasoning and clarify understanding.
• Flexible Classroom Use – Suitable for whole-group instruction, independent work, or literacy centers.
• Low-Prep Design – Easy to print and use in classroom or homeschool settings.

This printable worksheet helps students deepen vocabulary knowledge, strengthen inference skills, and improve reading comprehension through meaningful story analysis. By exploring homonyms within an engaging mystery, learners practice context-based reasoning and close reading strategies that transfer to everyday texts. Whether used in an elementary classroom or a homeschool environment, this activity offers an effective and enjoyable way to reinforce multiple-meaning word understanding.

This worksheet is part of our Homonyms collection.