The Secret of Desk Fourteen
Rain poured down in relentless gray sheets outside Oak Creek Elementary School. It was Tuesday, which meant indoor recess for Mrs. Gableās third-grade class. Most of the students were gathered on the colorful rug in the center of the room, playing board games or building tall towers out of wooden blocks. Leo sat by himself at his assigned desk in the back row, staring out the tall glass windows. He liked rainy days, but today felt unusually dull.
To pass the time, Leo reached into his desk for his sketchpad. As he dragged his pencil case toward him, his metal ruler slipped off the edge and fell to the linoleum floor with a loud clatter. Leo ducked down beneath his desk to retrieve it. That was when he noticed something he had never seen before.
On the underside of his desktop, right near the heavy wooden leg, were four small brass numbers screwed into the wood: 1-9-2-4. Beneath the numbers was a small wooden latch that was painted the exact same shade of brown as the desk. Leo had sat at Desk Fourteen for seven months, yet he had never looked at his desk from this strange angle before.
- relentless:
- Continuing without stopping or slowing down.
- retrieve:
- To get something back or pick it up from somewhere.
- compartment:
- A separate section or hidden space used for storing things.
- observer:
- A person who notices details and pays close attention to things.
- radiator:
- A metal fixture that provides heat to a room using hot water or steam.
More sheets from this passage
Built from the text itself ā answer key included where it counts.
fix the sentence
Sentences from the passage with the capitals and punctuation removed ā rewrite each one correctly.
vocabulary worksheet
Match the passage words to their meanings, then fill the missing words back into real sentences.
writing prompts
Two writing tasks that build on the passage, with plenty of lines to write on.
- All 4 sheets as one workbookPro
One PDF with a cover, contents page and every answer key at the back.
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About this fiction passage for 3rd Grade
āThe Secret of Desk Fourteenā is a fiction reading passage about Mystery, written for 3rd Grade. It takes about 4 minutes to read (548 words) and comes with an interactive quiz and a printable worksheet with comprehension questions and an answer key.