3rd Grade Read Across America ELA Bowl

Panning for Gold

In 1828, gold had just been discovered in South Carolina. People young and old dreamed

of becoming wealthy by finding precious nuggets of gold in the state’s rivers and streams.

 

Sarah bounced excitedly down the narrow trail after her brother Ben. Her eyes gleamed as

the warm morning sun shone down upon them. Ben whistled ahead of her, carrying his

cloth sack of equipment over his shoulder.

 

“Keep up!” Ben hollered back. “We don’t have much time!” He hoped his sister would not

interfere with his work. He wasn’t thrilled about bringing his younger sister along, and they

had to be home soon to do chores.

 

Sarah admired her brother. Ben had experience panning for gold. He had helped his father

and some other adults look for gold in a spot up the river, but this was the first time Sarah

had been allowed to go. Even though Sarah was excited, part of her feared that she may

not be cut out for panning.

 

Holding up her long skirt, Sarah eagerly caught up with Ben. Thoughts of glittering,

gleaming gold filled her head.

 

Soon they reached the place where Ben had chosen to start panning. He put down his

sack and spread the supplies on the ground. Ben handed Sarah a round pan and a

shovel. She gave him a questioning look. With only a hint of impatience, Ben took a deep

breath and demonstrated for her.

 

“First you look for big rocks in the stream. Maybe there will be a place where the water

slows down and flows lightly over the rock. That is where small pieces of gold can

sometimes be found,” he explained.

 

Sarah found her spot and waited for him to continue.

 

Ben rolled his pants up and took the pan from Sarah. “Use the shovel to scrape some

sand and dirt from the stream into the pan like this,” he said.

 

He then handed the pan to Sarah. “Swirl it with your hand until the sand settles on the

bottom and the water is on top,” he instructed, enjoying the role of expert.

 

Sarah listened carefully as he told her to gently pour the water out of the top of the pan,

leaving the sand on the bottom. Then, she gently rubbed a small layer of sand off the top

of what was left in the pan.

 

“Make sure you take off each layer slowly. Inspect the sand for small pieces of

shimmering rock,” he said. If Sarah were lucky, a piece of gold would be waiting in one of

the layers.

 

Ben handed her a container to put the pieces in. “If we find something that looks

important, we’ll take it home to ask if it is real or if it is just fool’s gold,” he suggested.

 

Sarah watched her brother and paid close attention to how he worked. She scooped and

scraped, then scooped and scraped some more. At first, she could not find a single

shimmering object. Eventually, after gaining more confidence, she decided to move to

another spot where the water trickled over a larger rock.

 

After a while, Sarah noticed her brother staring silently at the water. She could tell that he

was frustrated that he was not finding anything. But Sarah did not get upset. Instead, she

continued to search the sandy stream thoroughly. Sarah was determined to give her

brother a reason to be proud of her, not make him annoyed that she came along.

 

Suddenly, her heart skipped a beat. “Ben!” she cried. “They sparkle!” Covered in mud from

head to toe, Sarah held some small shiny rocks in her hand. Ben jumped up and ran to

observe her findings. Encouraged, he grabbed his pan and started working alongside her.

 

“I’m glad you are so determined,” he said, trying not to laugh at how dirty she was. “You’re

not so bad to have around, you know.”

 

Sarah returned his smile. “Thanks,” she replied as she continued to pan and her head

filled with visions of what she would do if her rocks were real gold. What a fascinating

possibility!

Which sentence from the passage best supports the theme that sometimes things work out better than expected?

• Sarah bounced excitedly down the narrow trail after her brother Ben.

• He had helped his father and some other adults look for gold in a spot up the river, but this was the first time Sarah had been allowed to go.

• “If we find something that looks important, we’ll take it home to ask if it is real or if it is just fool’s gold,” he suggested.

•  “You’re not so bad to have around, you know.”

Panning for Gold

In 1828, gold had just been discovered in South Carolina. People young and old dreamed

of becoming wealthy by finding precious nuggets of gold in the state’s rivers and streams.

 

Sarah bounced excitedly down the narrow trail after her brother Ben. Her eyes gleamed as

the warm morning sun shone down upon them. Ben whistled ahead of her, carrying his

cloth sack of equipment over his shoulder.

 

“Keep up!” Ben hollered back. “We don’t have much time!” He hoped his sister would not

interfere with his work. He wasn’t thrilled about bringing his younger sister along, and they

had to be home soon to do chores.

 

Sarah admired her brother. Ben had experience panning for gold. He had helped his father

and some other adults look for gold in a spot up the river, but this was the first time Sarah

had been allowed to go. Even though Sarah was excited, part of her feared that she may

not be cut out for panning.

 

Holding up her long skirt, Sarah eagerly caught up with Ben. Thoughts of glittering,

gleaming gold filled her head.

 

Soon they reached the place where Ben had chosen to start panning. He put down his

sack and spread the supplies on the ground. Ben handed Sarah a round pan and a

shovel. She gave him a questioning look. With only a hint of impatience, Ben took a deep

breath and demonstrated for her.

 

“First you look for big rocks in the stream. Maybe there will be a place where the water

slows down and flows lightly over the rock. That is where small pieces of gold can

sometimes be found,” he explained.

 

Sarah found her spot and waited for him to continue.

 

Ben rolled his pants up and took the pan from Sarah. “Use the shovel to scrape some

sand and dirt from the stream into the pan like this,” he said.

 

He then handed the pan to Sarah. “Swirl it with your hand until the sand settles on the

bottom and the water is on top,” he instructed, enjoying the role of expert.

 

Sarah listened carefully as he told her to gently pour the water out of the top of the pan,

leaving the sand on the bottom. Then, she gently rubbed a small layer of sand off the top

of what was left in the pan.

 

“Make sure you take off each layer slowly. Inspect the sand for small pieces of

shimmering rock,” he said. If Sarah were lucky, a piece of gold would be waiting in one of

the layers.

 

Ben handed her a container to put the pieces in. “If we find something that looks

important, we’ll take it home to ask if it is real or if it is just fool’s gold,” he suggested.

 

Sarah watched her brother and paid close attention to how he worked. She scooped and

scraped, then scooped and scraped some more. At first, she could not find a single

shimmering object. Eventually, after gaining more confidence, she decided to move to

another spot where the water trickled over a larger rock.

 

After a while, Sarah noticed her brother staring silently at the water. She could tell that he

was frustrated that he was not finding anything. But Sarah did not get upset. Instead, she

continued to search the sandy stream thoroughly. Sarah was determined to give her

brother a reason to be proud of her, not make him annoyed that she came along.

 

Suddenly, her heart skipped a beat. “Ben!” she cried. “They sparkle!” Covered in mud from

head to toe, Sarah held some small shiny rocks in her hand. Ben jumped up and ran to

observe her findings. Encouraged, he grabbed his pan and started working alongside her.

 

“I’m glad you are so determined,” he said, trying not to laugh at how dirty she was. “You’re

not so bad to have around, you know.”

 

Sarah returned his smile. “Thanks,” she replied as she continued to pan and her head

filled with visions of what she would do if her rocks were real gold. What a fascinating

possibility!

Read the sentence from the passage.

Even though Sarah was excited, part of her feared that she may not be cut out for panning.

What does the phrase “may not be cut out for” tell the reader about Sarah?

Responses

• 
  

• The phrase shows that Sarah does not really want to learn how to pan for gold.

• The phrase shows that Sarah realizes her brother does not believe she will be helpful.

• The phrase shows that Sarah suspects the activity will not be as much fun as she hoped.

• The phrase shows that Sarah is worried she will not have enough skills to pan for gold.

Check the two sentences that most clearly state an opinion.

• Field trips are lots of fun.

• My class visited the zoo last year.

• Most field trips are about things we studied.

• Sometimes it might be good to visit a museum.

•  Science museums are the best places for field trips.

A student is going to write an essay. The student wants to argue that Americans should watch less television.

Check all the sentences that clearly introduce the topic.

• There are many shows that I think would be better as books.

• 
  

  Shows from other countries are better than American shows.

• Most people like to watch some television, but this habit may be hurting us.

• Americans would be happier if they spent more time away from the television.

• Television may be fun to watch, but it is possible to have too much of a good thing.

from “Inuit”

by Carol White

 1  In one of the most remote places in the world, the Canadian Arctic, a people have survived over a thousand years. They are the Inuit. For the Inuit, the Arctic is a place teeming with life. Depending on how far north they live, the Inuit find everything from caribou herds and polar bears to beluga whales. The Inuit have adapted themselves to the various regions they inhabit. At one time they were considered to be among the healthiest people in the world. This is no longer the case; the Inuit lifestyle has changed dramatically over the past decades. The arrival of southerners and modern technology resulted in big changes to the Inuit diet and way of life.

2   Today, the Inuit are rediscovering their rich heritage and they are learning to govern themselves in a modern world.

 Way of Life

3   When you live in an environment that has few plants, there is a very good chance you will become a hunter. The Inuit pride themselves on being great hunters. The Inuit had lots of sea and land animals to hunt. The most important of these were the caribou and the seal. These two animals provided the Inuit with food. Their skin was used for clothing, blankets, tents and boats and their oil was used for cooking and lamps. Bones, ivory and wood were used to make tools. Other animals the Inuit hunted were the walrus, whale, polar bear, musk ox, fox and wolf.

 Food

4   Because edible plants are scarce in the Arctic, the Inuit ate mostly meat they got from hunting. They ate animals such as caribou, seals, walruses, polar bears, arctic hares, musk oxen, birds such as ptarmigan, and fish such as arctic char, salmon and whitefish. In the summer they also gathered berries and other edible plants.

Clothing

 5   Seal or walrus intestine is waterproof, and the Inuit scraped, cleaned, soaked and dried the intestines to make waterproof clothing. This kept the people dry, which was important since water freezes quickly in the North. People can get into a lot of trouble if they get wet in the Arctic and then freeze. Besides waterproof clothing, the Inuit also made parkas of caribou fur to wear in the cold winter. 6 At one point, scientists in Canada did a study to find out what the warmest winter clothes were. This included clothes that were sewn out of cloth, wool and other fabrics. The caribou jacket was the warmest by far. Even in winter, Inuit could not sleep with their jackets on because they got so hot that they would sweat. Sweat is dangerous in a cold climate because, like water, it freezes.

Shelter

 7   At one time the Inuit had a summer home and a winter home. In the summer, the Inuit often lived in tents that they made from caribou hides with wooden frames. In the winter many Inuit lived in sod homes. They would dig a hole in the ground and pile rocks and sod all around the outside to make walls. Pieces of wood or whalebone were used as a frame for the roof, which the Inuit then covered with sod. In both the tents and the sod houses the Inuit built raised platforms at the back for sleeping.

8   The Inuit are famous for their igloos. An igloo is built of blocks of snow shaped into a dome. They were mostly used as temporary shelter during winter hunting trips. The igloo is one of the Inuit’s best inventions. It is warm and easy to construct. Most Inuit today have settled in villages and live in houses.

What is the central idea of the passage from “Inuit”?

• The Inuit are an ancient people living in a remote region.

• The Inuit are skilled at surviving with only what nature provides.

• The Inuit spend all their time hunting animals in order to survive.

• The Inuit have become dependent on modern conveniences in the past few years.

“Tree House Monster”

1. Tony was so tired. He had been helping his dad outside with yard work all day. They had cut the grass, trimmed the bushes and the tree limbs, raked piles and piles of leaves, and watered all the flowers. Tony could barely keep his eyes open as he ate dinner with his parents that evening. His mother joked that his head almost dipped into his bowl of soup when his eyes blinked.

2. After dinner, Tony mustered up the energy to climb the stairs to his bedroom to get ready to go to sleep. After brushing his teeth, washing his face, and putting on his pajamas, Tony climbed into his warm, comfortable bed and snuggled under the blankets.

3. His eyes were closed, his bedroom was silent, and he was drifting off to sleep when out of the black night came a loud, high-pitched screeching sound. Although Tony was exhausted, he sat straight up and bolted out of bed. Tony rushed over to his bedroom window searching for what could be making the noises. Tony’s eyes fell upon his tree house perched up in the tree outside his bedroom window. Then, he heard the terrifying sound again.

4. Tony jumped back in bed and pulled his sheets above his head. His mind was racing. What was making that sound? What was in his tree house?  He was outside all day and didn’t see or hear anything. Tony was so worn out, he soon fell fast asleep.

5. In his dreams, Tony heard the loud screeching again. When he woke up the next morning, he wasn’t sure what had been making the commotion in his tree house, but he thought it might be a monster.

6. Right after breakfast, Tony went out to his backyard, climbed the ladder to his tree house, and looked around. There was no sign of a monster or anything else being there. Tony was stumped. Then he realized the monster must only come out at night. Now, he had a plan.

7. Tony spent the day at a friend’s house and then came home for dinner. After he had finished eating and helping his mother clean the dishes, Tony grabbed his flashlight and headed for the back door.

8. “Where are you headed this late?” Tony’s dad asked him.

9. “I have to go check out my tree house. I heard this terrible screeching sound coming from there last night, and I just know it’s a monster,” Tony answered.

10. “Looking for a monster? Well, then I’d better go with you.” Tony’s dad grabbed his hat and flashlight and joined his son.

11. They climbed the ladder and entered the tree house at almost the same time. Tony did not see anything again until his dad pointed to the top corner of the roof.

12. “That doesn’t look like a monster to me. That’s an owl up there. They are nocturnal, so they sleep during the day and are awake at night. That’s why you were hearing him at night and not during the day.”

13. Tony felt much better after finding out what the monster in the tree house really was. As he and his dad walked back to the house, they heard a loud, high-pitched screech. They looked toward the sound and saw the owl flying away into the night sky.

What does the word nocturnal mean as it is used in paragraph 12?

• active in the evening

• active during the day

• awake during the day

• asleep in the evening

Read these sentences below.

It landed in a tree, on a jumble of sticks and branches. A nest!

What is the meaning of the word jumble as it is used in the story?

• a pile of items

• the wrong idea

• a thing that can fly

• an exciting surprise

If Maria wants to read the words from a president’s speech, where should she begin her search in the library?

• the section that has books with stories

• the section that has books with experiments

• the section that has maps and charts

• the section that has computers and the internet

from What Was the Gold Rush?
by Joan Holub

What Was the Gold Rush?

1. A gold rush happens when lots of people race off to where gold has just been discovered. They all expect to find gold and get rich. The first gold rush in the United States was in North Carolina in 1799. It began when a twelve-year-old boy found a seventeen-pound nugget in a creek. His family didn’t know the nugget was gold, so they used it as a doorstop. Then, in 1802, they sold it for $3.50. They didn’t know it was worth far more—over $350,000 in today’s dollars! For fifty years, North Carolina produced more gold than any other state.

2. ​There was another gold rush in the Appalachian Mountains of Georgia thirty years later. The estimated amount of gold it produced every month in 1830 would be worth $14 million today.

3. But the most famous one is the gold rush of 1849. It happened when gold was discovered in California—gold worth billions of dollars today. The biggest nugget found weighed 195 pounds—as much as a grown man weighs!

4. In 1849, the majority of people in the United States lived east of the Mississippi River. The states with the most people were New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Virginia. After gold was discovered, people headed west hoping to get rich. The rumor was that gold was easy to find in California, but might not last forever.

   5. Men left their jobs and families in a hurry. These gold-hunters were called prospectors. They had other nicknames, such as “forty-niners.” They were also called argonauts, after a group of treasure-seekers in a Greek myth.

6. It was a long trip. Most went overland by covered wagon or took ships from the East Coast that eventually wound up in California. Some walked, with only a wheelbarrow or bag to carry their stuff.

7. Hundreds of thousands of Americans and foreigners caught a gold fever. People went half crazy over the idea of making a fortune. Some did get rich. Some got very, very rich. But most didn’t.

8. Still, it was an exciting time. And it all started by accident!

   Striking Gold

9. The big day was January 24, 1848. The place was the American River in Coloma, California. This was in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains.

10. A carpenter named James Marshall was building a sawmill there for John Sutter. The two men were in business together. Sutter already had a fort, a cattle ranch, a farm, and a home nearby. When the sawmill was finished, it would cut trees into lumber. The lumber would be sold. Marshall and Sutter would each get an equal share of the profits from the lumber business.

11. The crew building the sawmill had dug a shallow canal. It branched off from the American River. Water from the river could flow into the canal. Electricity wouldn’t be available until after the late 1800s. The force of the running water would turn the mill’s big wheel to operate the saw.

12. James Marshall was checking the canal when he spotted something shiny. Looking closer, he saw small golden rocks and flakes. They were in the water behind the mill’s wheel.

13. Quickly, he scooped some up in his hat. He went to show the men in his crew. Is it gold?  they all wondered. Maybe it was only fool’s gold. That was the nickname for a mineral called pyrite. It looked like gold and often fooled miners. But pyrite was worthless.

14. Marshall knew that pyrite was brittle. Gold, however, was fairly soft and difficult to break. Taking a hammer, he pounded a few of the shiny pea-size nuggets. They didn’t break. He boiled them in a pot of water with lye soap. He soaked the nuggets in vinegar. They didn’t crumble or melt. It looked like he’d found gold!

15. Marshall must have been an honest man. He didn’t try to hunt for more gold or keep it for himself. Instead, he rushed to Sutter with the nuggets.

16. Sutter was excited, too. But he still wasn’t sure the nuggets were gold. So the two men checked an encyclopedia. It said that a gold nugget is about eight times heavier than a rock of the same size. They weighed a nugget against other kinds of rocks. It was much heavier. They dripped a liquid called nitric acid on it. Metals such as silver, copper, or pyrite would have melted. However, their nugget didn’t.

17. It was gold all right!

What was the author’s purpose for writing this passage?

• to entertain the reader with a story about a prospector looking for gold

• to persuade the reader to get rich by searching for gold

• to inform the reader about the American River, where gold was once found

• 
  

  to inform the reader about three events when people raced off to find gold

Choose all of the sentences that are punctuated correctly.

• “My grandpa said,” Let’s go to the lake this weekend.

  
  

• “Do your homework when you get home,” my mom said.

• Uncle Mike replied, “I left the book by the table in the living room.”

• “Remember to let the dog outside before you leave, Ray reminded me.”