Making Inferences worksheet for students to practice determining the time of day based on sentence context.

Let’s go through each sentence one by one and figure out the time of day based on clues.

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1. As George walked down the hall towards his own apartment door, he could smell his neighbors’ dinners.

→ People usually cook and eat dinner in the evening. Smelling dinners means it’s likely around dinnertime — so evening.

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2. A sound of birds chirping outside of his window, Barry slowly opened his eyes. Then he remembered. Today was the day.

→ Birds chirp most often in the morning, especially when people are just waking up. “Slowly opened his eyes” suggests he just woke up → morning.

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3. Frank opened his bedroom door quietly and listened. He heard only the ticking of the old grandfather clock in the hallway. He tiptoed towards the kitchen, thinking about the last piece of pie in the refrigerator.

→ Tiptoeing + quiet + everyone else is probably asleep = late at night or very early morning. But since he’s sneaking for pie (not breakfast), and no one else is awake, this is likely night (after bedtime).

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4. Mark sighed. He tried to concentrate on his math problems, but he couldn’t help glancing at the clock. Twenty more minutes. Nineteen more minutes. His teacher’s voice droned on.

→ This is happening in a classroom. Teachers give timed activities during school hours. The fact that he’s counting down minutes until something ends (maybe recess? lunch? dismissal?) suggests it’s during the school day — likely afternoon, since mornings tend to feel longer and afternoons drag with anticipation of ending.

But wait — let’s think again: if he’s watching the clock count down from 20 to 19 minutes, and his teacher is still talking, it’s probably near the end of a class period. School classes often end in the afternoon. So yes — afternoon fits best.

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Final Answers:

1. Evening
2. Morning
3. Night
4. Afternoon