Where Go the Boats?: reading passage and questions

A free printable short story reading passage, written at a grade 2 reading level (Peabody level 7, where 3rd grade readers start; 88 words) with 5 comprehension questions and an answer key. No sign-up.

⬇ PDF with answer key 📖 Read it on screen

Name: ____________________Date: ____________

Where Go the Boats?

Dark brown is the river, Golden is the sand. It flows along for ever, With trees on either hand. Green leaves a-floating, Castles of the foam, Boats of mine a-boating-- Where will all come home?

On goes the river And out past the mill, Away down the valley, Away down the hill. Away down the river, A hundred miles or more, Other little children Shall bring my boats ashore.

Where Go the Boats? was written by Robert Louis Stevenson. A Child's Garden of Verses was published in 1885.

Questions

1. What color is the river?

Bright blue
Silver
Dark brown

2. What does the child hope will happen to the boats?

They will sink
Other children will bring them ashore
They will come back by morning

3. In this poem, what does "ashore" mean?

Onto the land
Under the water
Far out at sea

4. Which words start two lines in a row in the third verse?

Away down
Dark brown
Golden is

5. Which word rhymes with "hill"?

boats
sand
mill

Words to know

foam: bubbly froth
mill: grain-grinding house
ashore: onto land
valley: low land

Answer key: Where Go the Boats?

C. Dark brown
B. Other children will bring them ashore
A. Onto the land
A. Away down
C. mill

About Where Go the Boats?

The short version

Where Go the Boats? is a short poem about a river and the little boats a child sets floating on it. It was written by Robert Louis Stevenson and printed in A Child's Garden of Verses in 1885.

Quick facts

Robert Louis Stevenson was a writer who lived from 1850 to 1894.
The poem is in A Child's Garden of Verses, a book of poems for children first printed in 1885.
The poem ends with a wish: that other children far down the river will find the boats.

Who wrote Where Go the Boats?

Where Go the Boats? was written by Robert Louis Stevenson. It was printed in his book A Child's Garden of Verses in 1885.

For the teacher: how this passage is levelled

“Where Go the Boats?” is a reading level 7 story. Every Peabody story at this level is written and checked to keep sentences to 10 words or fewer, to aim at an average of 6 words a sentence, and to show 12 to 30 words on a screen. At most 8% of its words may be off the familiar-word list. Children in 3rd grade start at this level.

This passage	88 words, 3 screens, 5 multiple-choice questions with an answer key, and 4 vocabulary words with kid-sized meanings
Longest sentence at this level	10 words
Words on a screen	12 to 30
Skills practised at this level	phonics (sounding words out), sight words, spelling

Reading level 7: the limits, a real sample and the free games. Peabody is a learning app, not an assessment: use the questions to talk about the story, not to grade a child.