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Compare and Contrast Worksheets

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Venn diagrams with short texts, two texts on the same topic, comparing characters, alike-and-different charts and compare and contrast words.

Download the compare and contrast worksheets

Venn diagrams

Read two short texts, then sort facts into a Venn diagram: frogs and toads, deserts and rainforests, summer and winter.

Two texts on the same topic

Compare the most important points of two texts about the same topic.

Compare and contrast practice

Compare two story characters, fill in an alike-and-different chart, use compare and contrast words, and compare any two things.

Print at 100% (actual size) for the cleanest tracing lines.

About these compare and contrast worksheets

To compare is to tell how two things are alike. To contrast is to tell how they are different. Second graders compare two animals, two places, two texts on the same topic and two characters in a story, and they learn the words that signal it: both, also, same, but, unlike and different.

These compare and contrast worksheets start with Venn diagrams. Children read two short, true texts, then write the number of each fact in the left circle, the right circle or the middle. Other pages compare the most important points of two texts, two characters from a short story, and bats and birds in an alike-and-different chart. A blank chart works for comparing any two things.

Every page with right answers has an answer key.

Standards

  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.2.9Compare and contrast the most important points presented by two texts on the same topic.
  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.2.2Identify the main topic of a multiparagraph text as well as the focus of specific paragraphs within the text.
  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.2.3Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges.
  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.2.9Compare and contrast two or more versions of the same story (e.g., Cinderella stories) by different authors or from different cultures.

How to use them

  1. Start with a Venn diagram page and model the first fact out loud: is this true of frogs, toads or both?
  2. Have your child underline each fact in the texts before writing its number.
  3. Use the signal words page to build sentences: Both frogs and toads..., but frogs...
  4. Use the blank chart to compare two books, two pets or two places your child knows.

Teaching tips

  • The middle of a Venn diagram is for facts that are true of both things.
  • If a fact is in only one text, it goes in that text's circle.
  • Ask your child to say one way two things are alike before one way they are different.
  • Compare and contrast is also a great talking game in the car: how are a bike and a car alike?

Questions teachers and parents ask

What is compare and contrast?

Comparing tells how two things are alike, and contrasting tells how they are different. A Venn diagram shows both at once.

Are these worksheets for 2nd grade?

Yes. The texts are written for second grade readers, and the skills match the second grade reading standards for comparing two texts and two characters.

Do the worksheets have answer keys?

Yes. Every Venn diagram and question page has an answer key. Written answers show an example.