Grade 3

Core Knowledge Language Arts® • Skills Strand
Unit 9: Skills Workbook

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Skills Strand — Grade 3 — Unit 9

Core Knowledge Language Arts®

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Unit 9 Skills Workbook

This Skills Workbook contains the worksheets that go along with the lessons in the Unit 9 Teacher Guide. Each worksheet is labeled according to the lesson it belongs to and its place within that lesson. For instance, if a lesson includes two worksheets, the first is numbered 8.1 and the second 8.2. Because this is a student component, every student should have a copy of the Skills Workbook.

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Name: _______________________

1.1 — The Lure of Spices

1. What were European explorers searching for?

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1. Choose your favorite spice from the reading, and explain your choice with three supporting reasons.

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A. ____________________________________________________________________________
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B. ____________________________________________________________________________
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C. ____________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________

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Name: _______________________

1.2 — Take-Home Worksheet

Dear Family Member,

Please support your child's spelling practice by spending a few minutes each evening reviewing this week's words together. Useful activities include saying the words aloud, writing sentences that use them, or simply copying them out by hand.

Spelling Words

This week's lesson reviews the spelling patterns for the long u sound (as in "cute"), which can be spelled with the letter u, with u_e, or with ue. Your child will be tested on these words on Friday.

Two additional words, impossible and journal, have been assigned as Challenge Words. Challenge Words are common words that don't follow the spelling pattern being studied that week, so students must simply memorize them.

This week's Content Word is explorer. It connects directly to the material students are reading in The Age of Exploration. Because it is a content-related word rather than a spelling-pattern word, it is optional: if your child attempts it and spells it incorrectly, it will not count against them on the assessment. We do encourage students to challenge themselves by trying it anyway.

The full list of spelling words, including the Challenge Words and the Content Word, appears on the back of this worksheet.

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

Student Reader

In the chapters your child will read this week from The Age of Exploration, they'll learn about European explorers — the challenges these explorers faced, what they hoped to find, where they traveled, and what they ultimately discovered. This week's readings cover the search for spices and gold, the navigational tools explorers relied on, and a settlement established by the Spanish. Please ask your child each evening what they've been learning.

Throughout this unit, your child will bring home printed copies of the chapters from the Reader. Reading these texts aloud at home reinforces both the content and the vocabulary from this unit of study. Your child will also bring home a glossary to help explain unfamiliar terms; the words printed in bold in the take-home texts are the same words defined in that glossary.

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Name: _______________________

1.3 — Take-Home Worksheet: Introduction to The Age of Exploration

In 1491, most Europeans had no idea that North and South America existed. Likewise, the peoples living in the Americas had no knowledge of Europe. (Other explorers had reached the Americas earlier, but Europeans at the time were unaware of this.)

Everything changed in 1492, when Christopher Columbus sailed across the Atlantic Ocean and, by accident, landed on islands near the coast of the Americas. His voyage marked the beginning of what we now call the Age of Exploration.

Once word spread across Spain about what Columbus had found, Spanish adventurers rushed to seek their fortunes. Spanish conquistadors — a term for Spanish conquerors — such as Francisco Vásquez de Coronado set out in pursuit of silver and gold. They cut their way through swamps, crossed deserts on foot, and explored and conquered vast stretches of land.

Within a few years, other European nations joined the race. John Cabot explored on behalf of England. Henry Hudson sailed for both England and the Netherlands. Samuel de Champlain explored in the name of France.

These explorers reshaped the world by forging a connection between Europe and the Americas. The chapters that follow describe some of their journeys.

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Name: _______________________

1.4 — Take-Home Worksheet: The Lure of Spices

Many European explorers hoped to discover gold and other precious metals — a goal that probably makes sense to you, since gold remains valuable today. What might surprise you, though, is that many explorers were just as eager to find spices. You might wonder: spices? Why would anyone risk so much for something we now buy cheaply at the grocery store?

The answer lies in scarcity. Goods that are scarce — hard to come by — tend to be expensive. That's true of gold today, and it was equally true of spices five hundred years ago. Back then, spices were scarce in Europe; they were difficult to obtain, and that difficulty drove their price up. Some spices were nearly as valuable as gold, ounce for ounce.

Consider peppercorns, the small round seeds used to make pepper. A cook might toss whole peppercorns into a soup, or grind them into fine bits with a spice grinder — either way, they add flavor and heat to the dish. White peppercorns come from the very same plant as the more familiar red or black ones, but they're prepared differently: the outer hull of the red peppercorn is removed to expose the pale kernel inside.

Cloves, another prized spice, are actually dried flower buds. They're used to flavor meats, stews, certain teas, and pumpkin pie. Cloves have an intense flavor, so cooks must use them sparingly — too many can overpower every other flavor in a dish.

Peppercorns cannot grow in Europe's climate. They thrive only in warm, humid regions such as India.

Today, importing peppercorns from India is simple: an airplane or cargo ship can carry vast quantities at once, and a trip to any grocery store puts almost any spice within reach — a small jar of cloves might cost only a dollar or two, and a can of peppercorns perhaps five or six dollars.

Five hundred years ago, Europeans enjoyed no such convenience, because the world was nowhere near as interconnected as it is now. A Spaniard who wanted pepper would have to pay not just for the spice it