California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress Reading Grade 4

On the field behind school, Devi's kite climbed and then spun in circles. The string jerked her hand each time the kite whirled. The kite had no tail. Her uncle handed her three long strips of cloth tied in a row. "Tie these to the bottom point," he said. "A tail keeps the kite from spinning so the face can hold the wind."

Devi tied the strips on and let the string out again. The kite rose and stayed facing the breeze. It stopped whirling. The cloth flapped behind it while Devi held the string steady.

Her cousin Rafi asked if the strips were only for looks. Uncle shook his head. "They are not a decoration. They keep the back steady so the wind can lift the front."

The path to the garden crossed a creek on five flat stones. After a night of rain, a thin sheet of water covered the stones. Mr. Cole tied a rope across that path. "Wet stone is slick," he said. "We will use the wooden bridge this morning."

The bridge was longer and added a few minutes to the walk. Lena asked to hop the stones anyway because her boots were tall. Mr. Cole shook his head. "Tall boots do not make a slick stone safe. The rope stays until the stones dry."

By afternoon the water on the stones was gone. Mr. Cole untied the rope. The class used the stones again. The bridge had been for the wet morning, not a new path forever.

Two trays of bean seeds sat on damp paper towels. Ms. Ortiz put one tray on the sunny counter. She put the other in a dark closet by mistake. She watered both trays the same way.

On Friday the counter tray had short green stems and open leaves. The closet tray had stems too, but they were pale and floppy, bent over instead of standing up, and the leaves had not turned green. Ms. Ortiz carried that tray to the window. "Seeds can start in the dark," she said. "The new plants need light to make food and turn green."

By the next Friday those plants were greener and standing up. The water had been the same for both trays. The dark had been the missing piece.

The bike path crossed a driveway behind the bakery. A sign at the crossing said RING, then ride. The shared bikes had bells so a rider could warn a driver who was leaving the bakery. One ring at the sign was the rule.

Jonas rang his bell the whole way down the path. His hand was tired, so he forgot the ring at the crossing. A bakery van was starting to roll out, and the driver had not heard a bell there. Ms. Flores stopped Jonas. "The bell is a warning at the crossing, not a song for the whole path," she said.

Jonas walked the bike back and rang once beside the sign. The van waited. Then he rode through. One ring at the right place did the job the sign asked for.

The school map used a short line to stand for one block, the walk from one street corner to the next. A note under the map said one line equals one block. It did not say one line equals one step.

Andi counted four lines from the school door to the library. She told her brother Owen that the library was four steps away. They took four steps and were still beside the bike rack. Ms. Calderon walked with them along the sidewalk. They passed four corners. "Each line is a block," she said. "A step is much shorter. Four lines meant four blocks."

Andi copied the note onto a card and put it in her pocket. The next time she counted lines, she counted corners, not steps.

The cooking club mixed two bowls of bread dough with the same yeast, flour, and water. Ms. Berg set one bowl near the sunny window. The counter was full, so she set the other bowl in the refrigerator and forgot it there.

An hour later the window bowl had puffed up, high and round. The cold bowl was still flat. Ms. Berg took it out and set it by the window too. "Yeast is in both bowls," she said. "Yeast works faster when the dough is warm. Cold slows it down. This bowl was not missing yeast."

After the cold dough warmed, it puffed up as well. The club baked both bowls. Time in a warm place, not a new ingredient, was what the cold dough had needed.

On the walk home, the moon looked like a thick slice of orange with one side dark. Bruno said Earth's shadow was covering that dark side. His sister Ana stopped under a streetlight.

"The sun lights half of the moon," Ana said. "As the moon travels around Earth, we see more or less of that lit half, so the shape seems to change. The dark part tonight is the moon's own night side, turned away from the sun. Earth's shadow on the moon is an eclipse, and that does not happen every time the moon looks partly dark."

Bruno looked again. The bright curve was the lit half he could see. The rest was turned away from the sun. Earth's shadow was not covering the moon that night.

In July the sidewalk was hot at recess. Chris said Earth must be closer to the sun in summer. Ms. Beltran set a ball beside a lamp. She tipped the ball so the top half leaned toward the lamp. She called that lean the tilt.

"This half gets the sun more directly, and the days are longer," she said. "That is summer there. The other half leans away, so the same sunlight is spread over more of the surface and the days are shorter. That is winter there. Earth does not need to move closer to the sun to make summer. The tilt does it."

Chris looked at the tipped ball. She had not moved it nearer to the lamp. The lean was the reason she gave. He crossed out "closer" in his notebook and wrote "tilt."

At the park, a low wall stood about as high as Willa's shoulders. The grass below was clear. Willa held a big rock, and Samir held a smaller rock. Samir said the big one would hit the grass first because it was heavier. Willa said they should let go at the same moment and listen.

They counted to three and opened their hands together. Both rocks reached the grass together. There was one thud, not a heavy sound and then a late small one. Samir picked the rocks up. "Heavier did not win," he said.

They tried once more from the same wall, letting go together again. The landing was together again. The rocks were different sizes. The heavier rock did not fall faster.

A blue book lay on the library counter. It was the story Imani wanted. A paper strip around the cover said HOLD FOR JONAH, and the date was today. Imani reached for it.

Ms. Cho set her hand on the strip. "A hold means this copy is waiting for the person named on the paper. You may ask for another copy, or you may put your name down for later. You may not take this one just because you saw it first."

Imani wrote her name on a reserve card. Jonah picked up the blue book after school. Seeing a book on the counter was not the same as being the name on the strip.

The choir song on the board had two parts. The verse came first and told who was walking home in the rain. The chorus came second and repeated the same short lines. Ms. Brooks said the listeners needed the verse first so the chorus would make sense.

Eli wanted to start with the chorus because it was the part he already knew. He sang the repeated lines. The listeners had not heard who was walking, so the lines sounded like a riddle with a missing piece. Ms. Brooks stopped the piano. "The chorus repeats the feeling. The verse gives the person. The order is on the board."

They began again with the verse. Then the chorus followed. Eli still liked the chorus best. Liking it did not move it in front of the verse.

The garden gauge was a clear tube with lines, sitting in the open bed away from the roof. The lines showed how much rain had fallen since the tube was last emptied. A label on the stake said RAIN ONLY.

After a dry week the tube showed one line. Priya wanted the bean chart to look well watered, so she poured a watering can into the gauge until the tube showed four lines. Mr. Nunez poured that water onto the soil and emptied the tube. "The gauge is a record of rain," he said. "Water from a can is not rain. Four lines would tell the next class that a storm came when the week was dry."

The empty tube matched the dry week. The beans got the can water on their roots. The chart did not get a storm that had not fallen.

At the farm visit, a goat named Pebble walked loose in the yard. A sign on the gate said HOLD PAPERS UP. Pebble likes to eat maps and tickets if they hang down by a pocket or a belt. The sign did not say Pebble was mean. It said the papers had to stay high.

Diego held his trail map beside his belt while he pointed at the barn. Pebble grabbed the corner and tugged. The corner tore. Mr. Hale lifted Diego's hand until the map was at shoulder height. Pebble sniffed his sleeve and walked on.

The rest of the group kept papers up. Pebble stayed curious, but the maps stayed whole. The height was the rule that matched the sign.

The platform had two lines and two ticket colors. A blue ticket was for the train at 4:00. An orange ticket was for the train at 5:15. The same colors were printed on signs by the lines. Both trains went to the same town.

Maya had an orange ticket and stood in the blue line because her cousin Luis was there. The conductor looked at the ticket, not at Luis. "Orange boards at 5:15," she said. "That color gets on the later train. Standing with family does not change the ticket. You can wave from this platform and still ride your own train."

Maya moved to the orange line and waved. Luis rode the 4:00 train. Maya rode the 5:15 train. They were going to the same town at different times because their tickets were different colors.

The lunch yard had two bins side by side. The brown bin was for food scraps: peels, cores, and crusts. The gray bin was for trash that would not rot, such as plastic spoons and wrappers. A picture on each lid showed what belonged inside.

Cam dropped a plastic spoon into the brown bin because it had been on the same tray as an apple peel. Mr. Okada lifted the spoon out and dropped it in the gray bin. "The tray can hold them together," he said. "The bins cannot. A peel breaks down. A plastic spoon does not rot."

Cam put the peel in the brown bin and left the spoon in the gray one. Sharing a tray had not made them the same kind of waste.

The class traced Fern's shadow on the playground, drawing a line around its edge, three times in one day. In the morning the shadow was long and pointed away from the low sun. At noon the sun was high, and the shadow was short, close to her shoes. Late in the afternoon the sun was low again, and the shadow was long on the other side.

A classmate said Fern had grown and then shrunk. Ms. Quinn pointed at the sun, not at Fern. "Fern's height stayed the same. The sun's place in the sky changed. A high sun makes a short shadow. A low sun makes a long one."

They labeled the three drawings with the times. The different lengths came from the sun's place, not from a change in Fern.

Two silver keys were kept in the office. The key on the hook by the door opened the garden shed. The key in the desk drawer opened the art closet. A tag on the hook said SHED. A tag on the drawer key said CLOSET.

Jules needed paint, so he needed the closet. He took the hook key because it was closer to his hand. It slid into the closet lock and would not turn. He told Ms. Pinto the lock was broken. She read the tag still in his hand. "That key fits the shed. The closet key is in the drawer. A key that does not turn is not always a broken lock."

Jules swapped the keys. He hung the hook key back up and used the drawer key. That key turned, and the closet opened.