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Theme Worksheets

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A theme chart plus original fables and stories, topic or theme practice, organizers, matching, and comparing themes, with answer keys.

Download the theme worksheets

What is a theme?

A chart that tells a theme from a topic and shows how to find one, with a topic or theme practice page.

Find the theme in stories and fables

Original fables and short stories: choose or write the lesson and explain how key details show it.

Theme organizers, matching, and comparing

Go from key details to the lesson, match stories to themes, and compare the themes of two stories about the same characters.

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

About these theme worksheets

The theme of a story is its big lesson or message: an idea that could be true for anyone, not just the characters. A topic is one or two words, like kindness. A theme is a whole sentence, like "Small acts of kindness can make a big difference." Third graders find the theme by asking what the main character learns and which key details show it.

These theme worksheets start with a chart that tells a theme from a topic and shows how to find one. Original fables and short stories ask children to choose or write the lesson and explain how the details show it. Organizers take children from key details to the lesson, matching pages pair stories with themes (draw lines or cut and paste), and a compare page looks at the themes of two stories about the same characters.

Every page with right answers has an answer key.

Standards

  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.3.2Recount stories, including fables, folktales, and myths from diverse cultures; determine the central message, lesson, or moral and explain how it is conveyed through key details in the text.
  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.3.9Compare and contrast the themes, settings, and plots of stories written by the same author about the same or similar characters (e.g., in books from a series).

How to use them

  1. Start with the chart and the topic or theme page.
  2. Read a fable together and ask: what did the character learn?
  3. Use the organizer to connect key details to the lesson.
  4. Finish with the matching and compare pages.

Teaching tips

  • A theme is a whole sentence. If the answer is one word, ask your child to turn it into a lesson.
  • A good theme fits the whole story, not just one part.
  • Fables often state their lesson. Other stories make the reader figure it out.
  • Two stories can share a topic but have different themes.

Questions teachers and parents ask

What is the difference between a theme and a topic?

A topic is what a story is about in a word or two, like friendship. A theme is the lesson about that topic, in a sentence, like "Good friends help each other."

How do 3rd graders find the theme?

They look at what the main character learns or how the character changes, then use key details from the story to explain the lesson.

Do the worksheets have answer keys?

Yes. Every page with right answers has an answer key on page 2. Written answers show an example.