California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress Reading Grade 3

During art, Sofia cannot find her reading log. She checks her desk first. The log is not in the desk. Then she looks under the art tray.

The log is stuck to a wet paintbrush. Green paint covers one corner. Her name, Sofia, is still clear at the top. She peels the page off the brush.

She sets the log on the windowsill to dry. The paint did not cover her name. She can still turn the log in. The brush stays in the tray.

A chart hangs on the oak near the lunch tables. The title is "Birds We Saw." Monday shows 5 jays and 2 doves. Wednesday shows 1 jay and 6 doves. Friday shows 4 jays and 4 doves.

The chart counts birds the class saw land in the oak. A hawk flew over on Wednesday. No one saw the hawk land, so the hawk is not on the chart. Ms. Ortega says a flyover is a bird that flies past and does not land.

On Wednesday the dove count is higher than the jay count. On Monday the jay count is higher. On Friday the two counts match. The chart does not say the birds live in the tree all night.

At the city pool in San Jose, a sign gives two rules for the water slide. A child must be taller than the red line on the post. A lifeguard must be sitting in the high chair. Both must be true.

Omar is taller than the red line. In the morning the high chair is empty, so he waits on the deck. He does not climb. At noon a lifeguard sits in the chair. Then Omar climbs the slide.

Bea is shorter than the red line. She stays in the shallow pool, where the water comes to her knees. She stays there even after the lifeguard sits down. One true rule is not enough for Bea.

The class will hang a banner on the fence for the spring fair. Ana stretches a string along the fence. The string sags, and then she pulls it past the last post. She says the side is 15 feet.

Mr. Hale uses a metal tape. He pulls the tape tight from the first post to the last post, so it is straight and does not sag. The tape says 11 feet. The sag and the extra pull made Ana's string longer than the fence.

The ribbon shop needs the length of the fence. The class orders 11 feet of ribbon. The number 15 stays on Ana's note. They do not send 15 to the shop.

At a park in Pasadena, Nia and her uncle stand by a low wall. Nia holds a heavy round stone. Her uncle holds a lighter round stone of the same size. The air is still, with no wind.

They let go at the same moment. The stones hit the grass together. The heavy stone does not land first. Her uncle says, "Heavier objects do not fall faster."

Nia had guessed the heavy stone would reach the grass first. The two stones arrive together. The still air does not push the lighter stone off its path.

In a classroom in Redding, a poster shows Earth with a tilt. The tilt means Earth leans. Winter in Redding is cold. Jonah says Earth must be far from the sun in winter.

The poster says seasons come from the tilt. When the north half leans away from the sun, that half gets less direct sun. Then it is winter in the north. The poster does not say Earth moves far away to make winter.

Jonah reads the poster again. He crosses out his first sentence. He writes, "Winter here comes from the tilt." He does not write that Earth left the sun.

On a clear night in San Luis Obispo, a bright curve hangs over the porch. Most of the moon looks dark. Cousin Eli says, "Earth's shadow covers the rest."

Aunt June shakes her head. "Moon phases are the view of the lit half," she says. The sun lights one half of the moon. From the porch, they see only part of that lit half. That is why the moon looks like a curve.

Earth's shadow can fall on the moon during a lunar eclipse. That is a different event. Tonight's curve is not Earth's shadow. It is the part of the lit half they can see.

The class picnic was planned for the lawn at a school in Oakland. At noon the sprinklers popped up. Water soaked the blankets. The grass was too wet to sit on.

The class carried the cooler to the covered lunch court. The sandwiches were still dry inside the cooler. The move was not because the food was gone. The wet lawn was the reason.

They ate under the cover. The sprinklers kept spinning on the grass. No one spread a blanket there. The lunch court stayed dry.

A list by the door shows the jobs before the class goes home. First, stack the chairs. Second, wipe the tables. Third, line up at the door and wait quietly, with soft voices.

The students follow the list. They stack every chair. Then they wipe the tables until the tops are clean. Then they line up at the door.

Ms. Shah looks along the line. After the students line up, she turns off the light. The list set the order. Stacking came before wiping.

A card by the classroom door shows two bells. A short bell means recess. A long bell means a fire drill. A drill is practice for leaving the building safely. The two bells do not mean the same thing.

Today the bell rings for a long time. Nora reaches for a jump rope because she thinks it is recess. Mr. Patel points to the card. The card says a long bell is a drill, and recess is the short bell.

The class walks outside and stands on the painted numbers. The students do not run. The jump rope stays on its hook. Recess will come later, when the short bell rings.

The school store jar of pencils is almost empty. A sign says, "Pencils are scarce this week." Last Monday the jar was full. Today two pencils sit at the bottom.

Mr. Cole tells the class that scarce means very few are left. It does not mean the pencils are broken. Both pencils still write. It does not mean the store is closed. The store is open.

A new box will come on Friday. Until then, a student may take one pencil only if a teacher says the work needs it. The word scarce tells about the small number.

Before the concert, Lena stands at the side of the stage. She grips her flute. Her fingers press hard around it. Her hands shake. She tells her mom, "I am nervous." She is not angry at the flute.

Her turn comes. The flute plays every note. Nothing on it is broken. After the song, Lena smiles. Her hands grow still.

Mom hugs her. "The flute was fine," Mom says. "You were nervous, and you still played." The shake came from nerves, not from a crack in the flute.

A sign on the bike cage says, "Walk bikes inside the gate. Riding is for the street." The gate opens onto the sidewalk by the office.

Jules and her brother ride on the street. At the gate, Jules gets off her bike. She walks it inside. Her brother gets off and walks his bike too. A cone by the corner is a marker. It shows where to turn. It is not the rule.

They lock the bikes at the rack. On the street, the sign allows riding. Inside the gate, the sign says to walk. The words on the sign are the rule they follow.

A thermometer hangs in a classroom window in Eureka. A chart beside it has two rows. Morning is 52 degrees and is labeled cool. Noon is 58 degrees and is labeled cool.

The room feels a little warmer at noon. Ms. Nguyen tells the class that 58 is higher than 52. She also says both times are labeled cool, so the students still bring sweaters at noon.

Priya copies both numbers into her notebook. She writes cool beside each number. She does not write a new word. The chart is the record the class keeps.

The pie-sale sign says each bag should weigh 2 pounds. Cam fills a bag with 6 small apples. Lila fills a bag with 4 large apples.

They set the bags on the scale, one bag at a time. The scale shows pounds. Each bag shows 2 pounds. More apples can weigh the same when the apples are smaller.

Both bags go into the sale crate. The sign asks for weight, not for a count of apples. The counts stay different. The pounds match.

The tomato plant on the shelf looks droopy. Its leaves hang down. The students gather around the pot.

Ms. Park touches the soil. It is dry and has pulled away from the sides of the pot. The curtain is open, and light falls on the leaves. She says, "Dry soil can make a plant wilt. This curtain is not closed."

The students pour water until the soil is damp. They leave the curtain open. The dry soil was the problem Ms. Park found.

A map by the office shows the rooms down the hall. The nurse is the second door on the left. The library is the first door on the right. The first door on the left is the workroom, where the copier is.

Amir needs a bandage for a small cut on his knee. He reads the map and turns left. He passes the workroom. He opens the second door on the left. The nurse waves him in, moving her hand so he will enter.

He does not open the library door. A right turn would take him to books, not to a bandage. The map shows him which side to use.