Virginia Standards of Learning English Language Arts Grade 3

Jonah ate oatmeal at the kitchen window of his aunt's house in Richmond, Virginia. A bright red bird landed on the wooden feeder she had hung from a dogwood branch. Jonah whispered, "That is a male cardinal. The red feathers are his."

His little sister, Pia, pointed at a tan bird on the fence. "Is that one sick?" she asked. Jonah shook his head. "Female cardinals are mostly tan, with a little red on the wings and tail. She is not sick."

The red bird cracked a sunflower seed, then hopped to the birdbath. He drank, shook his wings, and flew toward the alley. Pia wanted to chase him. Jonah said, "If we run out, he will not come back to the feeder."

They stayed inside. A minute later the tan bird took the same path: seed, bath, then the alley. Jonah wrote two words on a sticky note: same order.

Ms. Ortega led her third graders along a spring path beside Bull Run in Virginia. The walk began at a wooden map board. She told the class, "Stay on the gravel. The bluebells are pretty, and their leaves bruise if we step on them."

The class passed a footbridge before anything else. After the bridge, they reached a bend where the flowers grew thickest. Blue blossoms covered the ground under tall trees. They saved a bench for the end, and everyone drank water there.

Dev copied a sign nailed to a post: "Bluebells bloom for only a few weeks." He asked what bloom meant. Ms. Ortega said, "Bloom means the flowers are open." A closed green bud was not blooming yet.

On the walk back, Nia kept her hands in her pockets. She wanted a bouquet, but the sign also said not to pick the flowers. She told Dev, "Looking is the way we keep them here."

Uncle Harris grew peanuts on a sandy field near Suffolk, Virginia. Cousin Imani thought peanuts hung on branches the way apples do. Uncle Harris shook his head and pointed at a low green vine.

"The yellow flowers open above the ground," he said. "Then a stem called a peg grows down into the soil. The peanut forms underground." Imani knelt and brushed sand away from one plant. Pale shells sat in the dirt, still attached to the pegs.

He said the plants needed loose soil so the pegs could push in. Hard clay would stop them. That was why this field felt soft under Imani's shoes.

At harvest, a machine would dig the vines and flip them so the shells faced the sun. Uncle Harris told Imani not to pull a plant that day. "These shells are not ready. Pulling one now would ruin a whole vine for a single snack."

Bea and her father drove onto the ferry at Jamestown, Virginia. A worker in an orange vest pointed them into a lane. "Set the brake, and stay in the car until we dock at Scotland," he said. Scotland was the landing on the far side of the James River.

The ferry horn sounded once. Then the ramp lifted. Bea watched a gull stand on a post as the boat pushed away from shore. Her father said the trip would take about 20 minutes.

Halfway across, Bea saw a barge moving slowly upriver. It was longer than the ferry and piled with gravel. She counted the gulls on their own rail and got 4. "Four gulls, and one barge," she told her father.

When the ramp went down at Scotland, the worker waved their lane ahead first. Cars behind them waited. Bea said, "We were near the front, so we leave before the cars in the back."

Inside a cavern near Luray, Virginia, the air felt cool and damp. A guide named Mr. Pell gave each visitor a sticker that said LOOK ONLY. "These stones grew slowly," he said. "Oil from hands can stop a stone from growing the way it should."

He shone a lamp on a stone icicle hanging from the ceiling. "That is a stalactite. It holds tight to the ceiling." Then he pointed to a stump rising from the floor. "That is a stalagmite. It might reach the stalactite someday."

Willa repeated the pair of words. "Stalactite on top. Stalagmite on the ground." Her brother Ned reached toward a shiny wall. Willa caught his sleeve. "The sticker says look only."

At the end of the path, Mr. Pell turned the lamp off for a few quiet seconds. Water ticked somewhere in the dark. When the light returned, Willa could see the same two stones again, still apart.

From a fence on Chincoteague, Virginia, Caleb watched ponies graze in a marsh pasture. A sign read, "Do not feed. Do not climb." His grandmother said wild ponies can get sick from people's snacks.

A small pony with a white mark on its face stood nearest the fence. The other ponies were solid brown. Caleb called the nearest one Patch because of that white mark. Patch flicked its ears but did not come closer.

A boy nearby held out an apple. A ranger walked over and asked him to put it away. "Apples are food," the ranger said. "The sign means every snack, not only chips." The boy put the apple in a backpack.

Caleb kept his hands on the top rail and his feet on the ground. He did not climb, and he did not offer food. Patch lowered its head to the grass again. Grandmother said, "You followed both rules. That is how we watch without causing trouble."

Ms. Lane met the class on the steps of the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond. Tall columns rose beside the doors. She said, "We will use quiet voices inside. People work in this building."

In the lobby, a wooden model showed the whole capitol, including its dome. Amir found the model easier to understand than the real rooms. "I can see the shape all at once," he said. The real dome was high above a round hall, and his neck hurt when he looked up.

The class walked a hallway of framed pictures. Amir's friend Lila read one label aloud and then forgot the name. Ms. Lane did not quiz them. "Today we practice noticing," she said. "You do not have to memorize every label."

Before leaving, they stood on the steps again. Amir pointed from the memory of the model to the real roof. "The dome is the round part on top," he told Lila. She nodded and kept her voice low until they reached the bus.

Apple rows covered a hill above the Shenandoah Valley near Winchester, Virginia. Nora carried a small basket with a blue handle. The orchard owner, Mr. Keene, met her family at a gate.

"Pick only the apples that come off with a gentle turn," he said. "If you have to yank, the apple is not ready, and the branch can tear." He showed Nora a red apple that twisted free. A green one stayed put.

Nora's brother, Seth, wanted the biggest apple on a high branch. Mr. Keene shook his head. "Use the trees you can reach. The ladders are for workers." Seth chose a red apple at shoulder height. It turned loose in his hand.

At the scale, Nora had 5 apples and Seth had 3. "Five and three make eight," Mr. Keene said. He wrote 8 on a card and set both baskets in one crate. Leaves stayed on the ground. "We do not need the leaves," he added.

The old lighthouse at Cape Henry stands near the opening of the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia. Jules and his uncle climbed the brick tower on a clear afternoon. A ranger at the bottom said, "Hold the rail. You may look out at the top, but do not run on the steps."

Jules kept one hand on the rail the whole way up. His uncle watched his own shoes and laughed. "If I stare at the water now, I might miss a step." At the top, a glass room opened toward the beach on one side and the bay on the other.

From the high windows, Jules counted ships. He saw 7. Two were close to the beach, and 5 were farther out on the bay. A panel on the wall said that at night the beam helps ships find the way in.

Jules asked if the light was shining. The ranger shook her head. "It is afternoon. The beam is for darkness, when sailors cannot see the shore." On the way down, Jules still held the rail, and he did not run.

The third graders at a school in Roanoke, Virginia, shared six garden beds. Ms. Pritchard gave each bed a job. Bed 1 was for lettuce. Bed 2 was for radishes. Beds 3 and 4 were for tomatoes. Beds 5 and 6 were for herbs.

Monday was planting day for lettuce. Students pressed the tiny seeds into the soil and patted the dirt flat. They did not cover them with a thick mound. "Lettuce seeds need a thin cover," Ms. Pritchard said. "A deep pile would block the light they use to sprout."

Wednesday, rain filled the watering cans, so the class did not pour extra water. "The sky already watered bed 1," said a boy named Theo. He checked the soil with one finger. It felt damp, not muddy.

Friday, tiny green hooks appeared in the lettuce bed. Nothing showed yet in the tomato beds, and that did not worry Ms. Pritchard. "We planted the tomato seeds last week, but they take longer to sprout than lettuce." The class drew the hooks in a journal and left the plants alone.

On a cool Saturday, volunteers met under a sycamore near the Rivanna River in Charlottesville, Virginia. A leader named Coach Diaz handed out gloves and cloth bags. "Gloves stay on," he said. "We do not know what is in the weeds."

The group walked downstream. Their first find was a torn kite snagged in the brush. After that, three plastic cups hung in the crook of a branch. The last thing before the turnaround rock was a muddy bucket in the shallows. Coach Diaz said the bucket was the heaviest find.

A girl named Priya wanted to keep the kite. Coach Diaz shook his head. "It is torn, and it is trash now. All of it goes in the bags." Priya nodded and tied her bag shut.

Back at the sycamore, they counted. The class from Priya's school had filled 4 bags. Another family had filled 2. Coach Diaz said, "Four plus two is six bags." He thanked them and reminded them to wash their hands before lunch.

Tables filled a downtown lot at the farmers market in Staunton, Virginia. Helen and her mother started at the honey table because Mother needed a jar for tea. The beekeeper's sign said one jar cost 4 dollars. Mother paid with a five-dollar bill and got 1 dollar back.

Next they stopped for peaches. Helen chose 6 ripe peaches and set them in a paper bag. A boy at the next table sold green beans by the handful. Helen did not buy any. "We still have beans at home," Mother said.

A musician played a fiddle near the last row of tables. Helen wanted to stay for every song, but Mother pointed at the clock on the bank. "We told Grandma we would be back at 11. The music can finish without us."

They walked to the car with honey and peaches. Helen said the market had been noisy and sweet. Mother laughed. "Noisy from the fiddle, sweet from the peaches. That is a good pair of words."

Cedar led the way down a shaded path at Natural Bridge, Virginia, with her parents close behind. The trail was steep, so they walked slowly. A sign asked visitors to stay on the path because the rocks at the edge were loose.

The stone bridge rose high over the creek. Cedar stopped beneath it and looked up. She could not see any sky while she stood in that deep shade. Her father said, "The rock makes a roof here. The creek made space under it a little at a time."

Cedar asked if a work crew had built the bridge. Her mother said no. "No one stacked these stones. Water carved the opening. It was not a crew with tools." Cedar touched only the sign, not the rock.

On the climb back, they rested 2 times. At each stop they drank water and looked along the path behind them. Cedar said the walk down had felt longer, even though the signs were the same ones they had already passed.

The library in Alexandria, Virginia, held story time on a round rug. Mr. Cole, the librarian, held up a picture book about a potter. He asked the children to sit crisscross so everyone could see the pages.

The first page showed a lump of clay. The next page showed a bowl. On the last page, the bowl held oranges. A child named Ruth said, "The potter changed the clay." Mr. Cole agreed. "The order of the pages shows the change."

Ruth's friend Omar thought the oranges had grown inside the bowl. Mr. Cole turned back one page. The bowl was empty there. "Someone put the oranges in," he said. "They did not grow from the clay."

After the story, children could draw a bowl of their own. Ruth drew a blue bowl and three oranges. Omar drew a bowl with nothing in it. Mr. Cole said both drawings fit the book. "An empty bowl and a full bowl are both in the pages."

Ms. Boone guided a small group into a salt marsh on Virginia's Eastern Shore. Tall cordgrass stood in the mud. When the tide was high, water covered the grass stems partway. When the tide was low, the mud showed and tiny crabs scattered.

She pointed to a great blue heron. It stood still, then stabbed the shallow water with its beak. "It waits before it strikes," she said. "A splash from us would warn the fish." The group froze where they were.

A boy named Eli whispered that herons must hate the wind. Ms. Boone said the wind was not the problem. "Movement that we cause is the problem. The heron can handle weather. It cannot hunt if we scare the fish away."

They backed out on the same boards they had used to walk in. Eli counted 2 herons: the hunter near the grass, and a second bird farther down the marsh. He did not clap or shout. On the road, Ms. Boone said, "Quiet watching gave us the hunt. Noise would have given us an empty creek."

Grandpa parked in Abingdon, Virginia, where the Virginia Creeper Trail crosses town. He rented two bikes: a green one for himself and a red one for his grandson, Miles. Both helmets clicked shut before anyone touched a pedal.

The trail was a smooth path that used to be a railroad. Grandpa said, "Trains do not run here now. Bikes and walkers share it. Call out when you pass." Miles called, "On your left," each time he went by a walker.

They stopped on a creek bridge to drink water. Miles had packed 8 crackers. He ate 2 and gave Grandpa 2. "Eight minus two, minus two, leaves four," Miles said, and he closed the bag on the last 4. A sign asked riders not to drop crumbs. "Animals should find wild food, not our snacks," Grandpa said.

The ride back followed the same path in the other direction. Miles walked his bike across the bridge instead of riding. His legs were tired, and the boards were damp. Grandpa said saving those last 4 crackers for home was a smart choice.

At a county fair in Halifax, Virginia, the third-grade pumpkin table stood between the pie booth and the pony rides. Mr. Alvarez had brought four pumpkins from the school garden. Each pumpkin wore a paper crown with a student's name.

The smallest pumpkin belonged to June. She had watered it every Tuesday. The largest belonged to Andre. He had started his seed a week earlier than the others. A judge read the cards and said, "Biggest is not the only prize. June's card tells the care she gave."

June's card listed three jobs: water, pull weeds, and turn the pumpkin so one side did not stay pale. Andre's card listed only the planting date. The judge gave June a blue ribbon for careful notes. Andre received a red ribbon for size.

On the way toward the pony rides, June let Andre hold the blue ribbon for a minute. "Your pumpkin made people stop," she said. "Mine made the judge lean in to read." They agreed both ribbons could hang in the same classroom.