Grade 3

Core Knowledge Language Arts® • Skills Strand

Unit 9 Skills Workbook

About This Workbook

This Skills Workbook has worksheets that go with the lessons in the Unit 9 Teacher Guide. Each worksheet has a number that tells which lesson it belongs to. For example, if Lesson 8 has two worksheets, they are called 8.1 and 8.2. Every student should have their own copy of this workbook.

---

Name: ____________________

Worksheet 1.1: The Lure of Spices

1. What were European explorers looking for?

---

---

1. Write your favorite spice from the reading. Then give three reasons why it is your favorite.

Favorite spice: __________________________________________________________________

A. ____________________________________________________________________________

B. ____________________________________________________________________________

C. ____________________________________________________________________________

---

Name: ____________________

Worksheet 1.2: Take-Home Letter

Dear Family Member,

Please help your child do well in spelling. Spend a few minutes each evening going over the words together. You can have your child say the words out loud, write sentences with them, or just copy them.

Spelling Words

This week we are reviewing words with the "long u" sound spelled 'u', 'u_e', and 'ue'. Your child will be tested on these words on Friday.

Your child also has two Challenge Words: impossible and journal. Challenge Words are words we use a lot. They don't follow this week's spelling pattern, so students need to memorize them.

This week's Content Word is explorer. This word connects to what we are reading in The Age of Exploration. It is an extra spelling word — if your child tries it and spells it wrong, it will not count against them. We hope students will give it a try anyway!

All the spelling words, including the Challenge Words and Content Word, are listed below.

Word List:

1. hue
2. perfume
3. unify
4. continue
5. argue
6. amusement
7. accuse
8. rescue
9. issue
10. cubical
11. useful
12. utensils
13. bugle
14. occupy
15. uniform
16. confuse
17. fuming
18. mute
19. Challenge Word: impossible
20. Challenge Word: journal

Content Word: explorer

About the Student Reader

This week your child will read chapters from The Age of Exploration about explorers from Europe. These true stories tell about the hard trips these explorers took, what they were searching for, where they went, and what they found. This week's reading covers the search for spices and gold, tools used for finding your way at sea, and a settlement (a new town) built by the Spanish. Please ask your child each night what they are learning.

Your child will bring home paper copies of the Reader chapters throughout this unit. Reading these at home will help your child remember the facts and vocabulary. Your child will also bring home a glossary — a list of word meanings — to use while reading with family. The bold words in the text copies are the words found in the glossary.

---

Name: ____________________

Worksheet 1.3: Introduction to The Age of Exploration

In 1491, most people in Europe did not know that North America and South America existed. And the people already living in the Americas did not know that Europe existed. (Other explorers had visited the Americas before this time, but Europeans didn't know about it.)

Everything changed in 1492. That year, Christopher Columbus sailed across the Atlantic Ocean. He landed on islands near the Americas by accident. His journey marked the beginning of what we call the Age of Exploration.

News about what Columbus found spread quickly. Soon, men from all over Spain were racing to find treasure. Spanish conquistadors — soldiers and explorers who conquered new lands — such as Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, searched for silver and gold. They cut their way through swamps and marched across deserts. They explored, and conquered, many lands.

A few years later, other European countries joined in. John Cabot explored for England. Henry Hudson explored for both England and the Netherlands. Samuel de Champlain explored for France.

These explorers changed the world. They connected Europe to the Americas. You will read about some of their journeys in this unit.

---

Name: ____________________

Worksheet 1.4: The Lure of Spices

Many European explorers hoped to find gold and other valuable metals.

It's easy to understand why explorers wanted gold — it's still valuable today. But you might be surprised to learn that explorers were also excited about finding spices. You may be thinking, "Spices? Really? Why did they care so much about spices?"

Here's why: things that are scarce, or hard to find, usually cost more money. That's why gold is expensive today. It's also why spices were expensive five hundred years ago. Back then, spices were scarce in Europe — hard to find — so they cost a lot of money. Some spices were worth almost as much as gold!

Picture a plate of spices. The red balls in the middle are red peppercorns. A cook can drop a few whole peppercorns into soup, or grind them into tiny bits with a spice grinder. Either way, the pepper adds flavor and makes the soup spicier.

Next to the red peppercorns are white peppercorns. These actually come from the same plant as red peppercorns! They start out red, but the outer skin is removed, showing the white part underneath. White peppercorns are used the same way as red ones.

There are also cloves — dried flower buds used to add flavor to meats, stews, some teas, and pumpkin pie. Cloves have a very strong taste, so cooks must be careful. Using too many can overpower the other flavors in a dish.

Peppercorns can't grow in Europe. They only grow in warm, wet places like India.

Today, we can get peppercorns from India easily. Airplanes and ships carry large amounts of them across the world. You can walk into a grocery store and buy almost any spice you want. A small jar of cloves might cost only a dollar or two. A can of peppercorns might cost five or six dollars.

Five hundred years ago, people in Europe were not so lucky. The world was not as connected as it is now.

If someone in Spain wanted pepper, they had to pay for more than just the spice itself. They also had to pay for the long trip the pepper took from India — carried over land by donkeys, mules, and camels.

The same was true for cloves and cinnamon. These plants could not grow in Europe. They had to be imported — brought in — from faraway places like the Indies.

Many spices come from a plant's flowers, fruits, or seeds. Cinnamon is different — it comes from the tree's bark. Workers cut strips of bark off the tree, then remove the rough outer layer. The soft inner bark is left to curl up into little scrolls called cinnamon sticks. Cinnamon can also be ground into powder, just like pepper.

Do you like the taste of cinnamon? Do you like it on toast? How much do you like it — would you sail across an ocean just to get some for your breakfast? In a way, that is exactly what European explorers were trying to do.

---

Name: ____________________

Worksheet 2.1: Second Sons

1. What is the main idea of the reading?

---

---

1. Imagine it is the 1400s or 1500s, and you are not the oldest son in your family. Your oldest brother will inherit — receive — everything your father owns. What would you do? Give three reasons to support your answer.