Smart Gardening

This applied comprehension worksheet helps students in Grades 4, 5, and 6 strengthen informational reading, problem-solving, and explanatory writing skills through a realistic school gardening scenario. After closely reading about Jordan planning a garden project, students analyze key details about sunlight, plant needs, and layout decisions, then use that information to solve a practical garden-planning task using evidence and logical reasoning.

Learning Goals

• Applied Reading Comprehension (Grades 4-6): Use details from an informational passage to solve a real-world problem.
• Identifying Key Details: Locate and apply information about sunlight, space, and crop needs.
• Cause & Effect Reasoning: Explain how environmental factors influence planning decisions.
• Explanatory Writing: Justify solutions using complete sentences and evidence from the text.

Instructional Benefits

• Teacher-Created Resource: Designed by educators to align with upper elementary ELA and science standards.
• Cross-Curricular Learning: Integrates reading comprehension with basic plant science concepts.
• Reasoning-Focused Tasks: Encourages students to explain why a solution works, not just what it is.
• Flexible Classroom Use: Ideal for independent work, small groups, STEM connections, or assessment.

This printable worksheet helps students practice using informational text as a tool for decision-making and planning. By applying reading evidence to a hands-on gardening problem, learners build stronger comprehension, logical reasoning, and explanatory writing skills. Whether used in a classroom or homeschool setting, this resource provides meaningful practice with real-world problem-solving, evidence-based thinking, and thoughtful analysis of informational text.

This worksheet is part of our reading applications worksheets collection.