Reading comprehension: Visit from outer space

A Year 3 reading comprehension text and activity created by an experienced primary school teacher to help children improve their reading skills.

This reading comprehension encourages children to think about the feelings and behaviour of characters in a text. It includes answers to the questions.

What reading skills are developed in Year 3?

Year 3 children typically develop a range of reading skills, all of which build upon their existing knowledge and help them become a more confident and independent reader. 

Here are some key reading skills that are focused on during the academic year:

Fluency

• Increasing their reading speed and accuracy: Children work on reading more smoothly and accurately, with fewer pauses and errors.
• Expression and intonation: Children will begin to read aloud with expression and intonation, bringing the text to live and demonstrating an understanding of the intending meaning.

Reading comprehension

• Understanding texts: Children learn to understand and interpret a variety of texts.
• Answering questions: Children practise answering questions about what they've read, focusing on both explicit details and implied meanings.
• Summarising: Children will start to summarise paragraphs or sections of texts.

Vocabulary development

• Expanding vocabulary: Year 3 students encounter new words and phrases, often through reading a diverse range of texts. 
• Using contextual clues: Children practise using contextual clues to infer the meaning of unfamiliar words.

Analytical skills

• Identifying themes: Year 3 children will begin to identify themes, messages and moral lessons in the stories they read.
• Character and plot analysis: They will start analysing characters' actions and motivations, as well as understanding the structure of the plot.

Phonics

• Advanced phonics: Year 3 children will continue to develop their phonics skills, learning complex sound patterns and new word structures.
• Spelling patterns: They will learn and apply common spelling patterns, which helps them to decode new words and improving spelling accuracy.

How will this teacher-made resource help your Year 3 child improve their reading skills?

This reading text and activity mirrors the type of reading challenge that your child will come across at school. They must first read the fictional text about aliens visiting from outer space, and then they will need to use their understanding of the text to answer the questions, which have been developed by an educational expert to improve reading comprehension skills. 

If you're looking for extra help with Year 3 English, check out our hub page, or try a new activity such as our Year 3 English Challenge Pack.