Name:
Spring Break Student Packet
Grade 3 Reading
Includes:
 Independent Reading
 Item Practice Review
 Language and Editing
THE SCHOOL DISTRICT OF PALM BEACH COUNTY
Department of Elementary Education
Created March 2016, Spring Break Student Packet
Copyright © 2016 by School Board of Palm Beach County, Department of Elementary Education
INDEPENDENT READING
Have your child read books of their choice each day for at least 45 minutes. Below are some
ways they can talk and write about what they have read.
Literature Text (e.g., Realistic Fiction, Historical Fiction, Fairy Tales, Fantasy,
etc.)
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Summarize the story using details and examples from the text.
Describe the characters and how their actions contribute to the sequence of the events.
From whose point of view is the text written? How do you know?
Compare and contrast two stories. Your child may discuss characters, setting, events,
etc.
What is a possible theme? What are details in the text that support your thinking?
What is a possible central message? What are details in the text that support your
thinking?
What word in the text was tricky for you? How did you solve it?
Reading Informational Text (e.g., Nonfiction Books, Magazines, Websites,
etc.)
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Summarize the text; include the main idea and key details.
Explain events; include what happened and why, based on specific information in the
text.
Describe how the author organized the text (e.g., sequence, compare/contrast,
cause/effect, problem/solution, main idea and reasons, description).
What was the author’s purpose for writing this text? How do you know?
What can you learn from the text features? How does the information you learned
connect with the text?
What is an important detail from this text? How does it connect with the author’s
message?
I can conclude that
because_
.
How is the text structured?
Created March 2016, Spring Break Student Packet
Copyright © 2016 by School Board of Palm Beach County, Department of Elementary Education
ITEM PRACTICE REVIEW
Read the passages, “China Today – The Giant Panda” and “China – China’s Population” and
answer question numbers 1 through 6.
China Today
The Giant Panda
Deep in a forest, a black-and-white bear sits peacefully. It chews the green leaves of
a plant. The bear is alone, but there are others not too far away. Later, it might amble over
to find them. They may play together. This is the giant panda in nature.
The giant panda is a bear native to China. It is unusual for a bear to be found only in
one place. For over a hundred years, scientists thought that giant pandas might belong to
the raccoon family. Then research in the 1980s showed that giant pandas are bears after
all. These bears are black and white, with black patches of fur around their eyes.
Giant pandas live in bamboo forests, high in the mountains in the western part of
China. This is their habitat. Here they eat bamboo. Bamboo is a grass that can grow 100 feet
high. It has hollow green stalks.1 Giant pandas peel off the leaves and stems to eat. Their
paws are well adapted to this task. They have a special thumb that helps them grasp the
bamboo. Giant pandas spend about 10-15 hours a day eating this plant.
Giant pandas are an endangered species.2 Why are so few left? One reason is that
they have less bamboo to eat. More and more of the bamboo forests where giant pandas
live are being cut down. China has more people than any country in the world, and these
people need food, clothing, and homes. Farmers want to use the land where the forests are
to plant food. Loggers want to cut down the forests and sell the bamboo to make money.
As the forests disappear, giant pandas are having a harder time finding food.
Sometimes they starve. Today, there are about 1,600 pandas left in the wild.
1
2
stalk – the stem of a plant
endangered species – a type of animal that is disappearing from the world
Created March 2016, Spring Break Student Packet
Copyright © 2016 by School Board of Palm Beach County, Department of Elementary Education
China
China’s Population
Population of China Compared to the US in 2010
1,600,000,000
1,400,000,000
1,200,000,000
People
1,000,000,000
800,000,000
China
United States
China has more people than any other country in the world. China is almost
equivalent,1 land-wise, to the United States. However, China has a much larger population.
The bars on the graph above compare the populations of China and the United
States in 2010. A little over 1,300,000,000 people were living in China. This was four times
more than the number of people who were living in the United States!
Many Chinese live in cities. As people move to the cities, the cities grow.
People build houses and businesses on land that was once used for farming. Then the land
can no longer be used to grow crops. This makes it hard for China to grow enough food for
its people.
The government was not sure there was enough food to feed people in the growing
cities, so lawmakers tried to keep the cities from growing. The government even made a
law to control population growth.2 The law said that most families living in cities should
only have one child. Parents who have more than one child would have to pay a fine.3
1
equivalent – equal in amount or number
population growth – the increase in the number of people in a place
3
fine – a sum of money given when a rule or law is broken
2
Created March 2016, Spring Break Student Packet
Copyright © 2016 by School Board of Palm Beach County, Department of Elementary Education
Now answer numbers 1 through 6. Base your answers on the passages, “China Today – The
Giant Panda” and “China – China’s Population.”
1. What is the purpose of the first paragraph in the whole passage, “China Today – The Giant
Panda?”
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to introduce the reader to giant pandas by describing them
to prove to the reader that giant pandas are in danger of dying out
to explain why bamboo is so important to giant pandas
to argue that giant pandas actually belong to the raccoon family
2. According to the passage, “China Today – The Giant Panda,” select two places where you
would most likely find the giant panda?
Ⓐ
Ⓑ
Ⓒ
Ⓓ
Ⓔ
a swamp or marsh in Japan
a swamp or marsh in China
a bamboo forest in Japan
in a bamboo forest in China
in the western part of China
3. Draw the lines to match the words with the correct definitions based on the passage, “China
Today - The Giant Panda.”
habitat
endangered
adapted
a type of animal that is disappearing from the
world
an animal’s natural home
the way that an animal’s body parts are especially
suited to help it live in an environment
Created March 2016, Spring Break Student Packet
Copyright © 2016 by School Board of Palm Beach County, Department of Elementary Education
4. Part A
Fill in the circle before the sentence that shows what the passage, “China – China’s
Population,” is mostly about.
Ⓐ
Ⓑ
Ⓒ
Ⓓ
the differences between China and the United States
the size of China’s population and why there might not be enough food for everyone
laws about the population in China
why it’s hard to have children in cities
Part B
Fill in the circle before the two sentences that BEST support the answer in Part A.
Ⓐ China has more people than any other country in the world. China is almost equivalent,
land-wise, to the United States. However, China has a much larger population. The bars on
the graph above compare the populations of China and the United States in 2010. A little
over 1,300,000,000 people were living in China. Ⓑ This was four times more than the
number of people who were living in the United States! Many Chinese live in cities. As
people move to the cities, the cities grow. People build houses and businesses on land that
was once used for farming. Ⓒ Then the land can no longer be used to grow crops. This
makes it hard for China to grow enough food for its people. Ⓓ The government was not
sure there was enough food to feed people in the growing cities, so lawmakers tried to keep
the cities from growing. Ⓔ The government even made a law to control population growth.
The law said that most families living in cities should only have one child. Ⓕ Parents who
have more than one child would have to pay a fine.
5. How does the information in “China - China’s Population” impact the information in “China
Today - The Giant Panda”?
Ⓐ
Ⓑ
Ⓒ
Ⓓ
The increase in China’s population endangered the panda’s population.
The panda and large populations of people are found in China.
It is hard for China to grow enough food for its people.
It is hard for pandas to find enough food.
Created March 2016, Spring Break Student Packet
Copyright © 2016 by School Board of Palm Beach County, Department of Elementary Education
LANGUAGE AND EDITING
Choose the correct word or phrase to fill in each blank in the passage. For each blank, fill in the
circle before the word or phrase that is correct.
Literature Text
1. “It is a beautiful
[Ⓐ day, Ⓑ day Ⓒ day”Ⓓ day,”] replied Ant. “But if I don’t
work on warm days, my family will not eat on cold days.”
2. So it went, day after day, week after week. Every time Grasshopper saw Ant, he laughed.
“Work, work, work!
[ⒶThere ⒷThere’s Ⓒ Theres Ⓓ Thers] more to life
than work.”
3. Summer came to an end. The nights became cool. Ant kept busy. He wanted to gather as
much food as he
[Ⓐ culd Ⓑ could Ⓒ cold Ⓓ cuold] before the coming winter.
Grasshopper, too, felt the chill of autumn. He began to look around for things to gather.
There was not much left. And time was
[Ⓐ running Ⓑ runing Ⓒ runneing
Ⓓ rounning] out.
Informational Text
4. Sally Ride always
[Ⓐ love Ⓑ lov Ⓒ loved Ⓓ loving] science and sports. In
high school, she thought about becoming a tennis player. Her love of science won out,
however. Ride went to college and studied physics, a branch of science.
5. In 1978, Ride saw an ad in a newspaper for an exciting job: astronaut! The position was at
NASA, the United States government agency that
[Ⓐ run Ⓑ running
Ⓒ runs Ⓓ runned] the country's space program. Eight thousand college students applied.
Only twenty-five were accepted. Sally Ride was one of them.
6. While training at NASA, Ride helped develop a robotic arm to use in space. She went on
________ [Ⓐ her Ⓑ hers Ⓒ him Ⓓ they] first space shuttle trip on June 18, 1983. She was
the first American woman to travel in space. Flying on a rocket was dangerous and difficult.
It took courage to fly into space. But when Sally Ride returned to Earth from her six-day
shuttle trip, she said, "It was the most fun I'll ever have in
[Ⓐ mine Ⓑ our
Ⓒ me Ⓓ my] life.
Created March 2016, Spring Break Student Packet
Copyright © 2016 by School Board of Palm Beach County, Department of Elementary Education