Basic Cloze Worksheets

  1. Basic Cloze Worksheet - Students can really relate to this one. Complete the passage with your own words. A nice long cloze for you.
  2. A Day In The Life Of A Worm... - Was this on Discovery too?
  3. A Duck's Thoughts - Our authors got obsessed with ducks. They must be watching the Discovery channel more.
  4. A Skating Moose - What will they think of next?
  5. Blacksmiths - Why could I not take Blacksmithing in college?
  6. Caterpillars and Body Movement - Make them into butterflies.
  7. Get It Together - Ask the neighbors for some supplies.
  8. Harold Looks For His Book - He just can't seem to find it.
  9. Huge Moose on the Loose - What would you do?
  10. Jokes Taken As Insults - Never mess with the queen!
  11. Max's Trip to Sydney - A fun trip!
  12. More Caterpillars - We jump into talking about caterpillars again.
  13. Getting Your Ducks In A Row - Don't act like a duck.
  14. Get That Mouse! - The chase is on.
  15. The Big Storm - The clouds are getting gray and it's time to find shelter.
  16. The Gardening Elf - Snow is a coming.
  17. The Merchant - A tall tale?
  18. The Truth About Worms - You learn something new everyday!
  19. Trapping Elephants - It's a jungle out there!
  20. Two Birds - Exercising and playing.
  21. Yelling Caterpillars? - Piece the story together.

Holiday Cloze Worksheets

All of these worksheets relate to a specific holiday.
  1. Christmas Bank On It!
  2. Halloween Bank On It!
  3. Hanukkah Bank On It!
  4. Martin Luther King Jr. Bank On It!
  5. St. Patrick's Day Bank On It!
  6. Thanksgiving Bank On It!
  7. Valentine's Day Bank On It!
  8. Winter Bank On It!

Science Cloze Worksheets

These printables focus on the subject of science.
  1. Animals
  2. Cells
  3. Dinosaurs
  4. Elements, Compounds, And Mixtures
  5. Environment
  6. Food / Nutrition
  7. Forces Of Nature
  8. Human Body
  9. Inventors/Invention
  10. Magnets and Electricity
  11. Oceans
  12. Planet Earth
  13. Plants
  14. Rainforest
  15. Space
  16. Volcanoes

Social Studies Cloze Worksheets

The focus here is on places and people.
  1. Antarctica Bank On It
  2. Canada Bank On It
  3. China Bank On It
  4. Community Helpers
  5. Halloween
  6. Japan Bank On It
  7. Thanksgiving
  8. Veterans Day
  9. Winter

What Are Cloze Activities?

Close activities are worthwhile for students in learning, but they are also quite fun! As a teacher, there are several options available for you to explore to accurately assess your students' grammar, vocabulary, and comprehension skills. These skills are essential for the student's academic success.

Cloze activities allow students to focus on a type of reading that differs from the typical reading materials. Using these activities, you can teach them to make predictions using the context of what they are reading, an essential skill for becoming skilled readers.

So, if you're wondering what cloze activities are and how they will benefit your students, you've come to the right place. Read on to find out!

Why Are They Important?

Cloze activities are an instructional strategy that requires students to guess or predict the words removed from a passage to fill in the black spaces. Words are removed at irregular intervals to interrupt a continuous flow of reading, and the reader has to guess the missing words most suited to the missing spaces.

The missing words are sometimes provided in a word bank; however, this is often not the case, and students have to guess the words based on their understanding and the context of the comprehension passage.

Here are some reasons why cloze activities are beneficial in the learning process:

- By asking students to fill in the missing words, teachers can gather helpful information about the student's reading skills, which can drive future reading lessons.

- They are an effective tool to assess students' spelling and language skills and encourage them to think carefully about the word choice to fill in the missing spaces, allowing them to think critically and analytically.

- Encouraging the practice of these types of activities in your classroom will help you judge if the students can decipher the meaning of the passage well enough to decide what kind of word will fit well into the sentence – an adjective, a verb, or a noun? This is a fun way for students to learn about a topic, and these small passages contain helpful information that makes students wonder.

- They also help to reinforce the knowledge of grammatical & mechanical rules and recognition of sentence structures to strengthen the overall comprehension, allowing students to make their meaning from a text or passage. These activities also help engage students in active learning and promote an approach where students learn by doing.

- Another important reason to incorporate these exercises in the students' learning process is that it also helps them practice new or challenging words as they attempt to use the information in the passage to learn and commit the meanings of those words to their memory.

If you want to help students attempt cloze passage activities accurately, we have put together some tips that students can use to achieve success!

Handy Tips to Help Students Solve These Exercises

Here are some tips on helping students effectively utilize their language skills to attempt cloze passage activities! Keep reading.

#1 Read the Passage Carefully and Thoroughly

Start by taking a close look at the passage. Read it thoroughly and identify or highlight the keywords. Understand what the passage is talking about. As you read the passage for the first time, you'll notice that your brain will automatically fill the spaces for apparent linking working, such as 'and' or 'as.'

Read the passage slowly to understand better the theme, context, and tone of the text. Once you have identified this, it will make exercise much easier to solve.

#2 Identify the Word Type to Fill In The Blank Spaces

Once you have carefully gone over the passage, the next step is to assess the type of words that will fit into blank spaces. In simpler terms, identify the parts of speech.

Answer the question: Does the blank space need a noun, pronoun, verb, adverb, adjective, preposition, or conjunction?

For example:

- A verb: He ________ to school as he was getting late for class (ANSWER: ran)

- An adjective: They live in a ______ house by the lake. (ANSWER: beautiful)

#3 Use a Pencil and Start with Words You are Confident About

Start with words you are sure about, and use a pencil to fill in the spaces if you change your mind later. This allows you to erase and change your answer quickly.

As you fill in some of the words that you are confident about, the passage will make more sense making it easier for you to guess the remaining missing words.

#4 Pay Attention to Key Words

Pay close attention to keywords in the text as they are essential to solving the cloze activity. If you cannot decide between words, look for indications or specific keywords before and after the blank spaces to guess the appropriate answer.

#5 Generate Options

For tricky spaces, you can come up with a few appropriate options and list them down. Then read out the sentences using each of these options and pick the one that fits the tone and theme of the passage.

#6 Review the Passage and Make Necessary Corrections

Once you have filled in all the spaces, review the entire text to ensure that all the words fit in and form a flow of the passage. Make corrections where required. Keep practicing!


Concluding Thoughts

Cloze activities serve as an effective tool for promoting reading and comprehension skills among students while improving their critical and analytical thinking skills. These activities provide means for identifying and assessing how easy it is for students to read and understand the text in the presence of missing words at irregular intervals.

So, the more the students get into the practice of attempting cloze passage activities, the most they will improve upon their spelling, vocabulary, and reading comprehension skills.

You can use several printable worksheets available online for free. This way, you can save time and effectively use them as a teaching tool.

Worksheets are a great way to promote classroom learning, home learning, and online practice or distance learning. Happy teaching!