TELPAS reading practice questions for 3rd grade

On Saturday, Lucía and her grandpa went to the park near their house in Corpus Christi. The wind was strong, and the flags by the gate were snapping back and forth.

Lucía held her new red kite up high. Grandpa let out the string, and the kite jumped into the sky. It climbed higher and higher until it looked as small as a bird.

Then the wind changed. The kite dipped and spun, and its long tail caught on a branch of a tall oak tree. Lucía pulled on the string, but the kite only shook.

“Don’t pull so hard,” Grandpa said. “Let the string go loose and wait.” Lucía waited. When the next gust of wind came, the kite lifted off the branch by itself.

Lucía grinned. “The wind got it stuck, and the wind got it out,” she said.

The nine-banded armadillo is the state small mammal of Texas. It is about the size of a house cat. Its back is covered with hard plates made of bone, like a suit of armor. The plates help protect the armadillo from thorny plants and from some animals that want to eat it.

Armadillos are good diggers. They use their strong front claws to dig burrows. A burrow is a hole in the ground where an armadillo sleeps and stays safe. Armadillos also dig in the dirt to find insects and grubs to eat.

An armadillo cannot see very well, but it has an excellent sense of smell. It can smell insects that are hiding under the ground.

A mother armadillo usually has four babies at one time. The four babies are always alike: they are all boys or all girls.

Minh started at Bowie Elementary in October. On his first day, he stood by the classroom door and held his backpack straps tight. He did not know anyone.

Ms. Garza asked Jasmine to be Minh’s buddy for the week. Jasmine showed him where to hang his backpack and where the class kept the pencils. At lunch, she saved him a seat next to her.

Minh did not talk much. But at recess, Jasmine saw him drawing in a small notebook. The pages were full of dragons, each one with long whiskers and bright scales.

“You drew these?” Jasmine asked. Minh nodded and smiled a little.

The next morning, Minh walked into class and went straight to Jasmine’s table. He handed her a folded paper. Inside was a dragon with a name written under it in big letters: JASMINE.

The bluebonnet is the state flower of Texas. It got its name because its petals are shaped a little like bonnets, or sun hats, that women wore long ago.

Bluebonnets are mostly blue with a white tip at the top. In early spring, they cover fields and the sides of roads in many parts of Texas. Some families drive out to see them and take pictures of their children sitting in the flowers.

A bluebonnet’s life starts in the fall. The seed sprouts after the fall rains, and the small plant stays close to the ground all winter. When the weather warms up in spring, the plant grows taller and blooms. Later, it makes seeds inside pods. The pods dry out and pop open, and the seeds fall to the ground. There they wait for the next fall.

Every December, Daniela’s family makes tamales at her abuela’s house. This year, Daniela was finally old enough to help.

Abuela showed her how to spread the masa on a corn husk. “Not too thick,” Abuela said. “Thin, like butter on toast.” Daniela’s first one was lumpy, and the masa slid off the side. Her cousin Mateo laughed, but Abuela just handed her another husk.

Daniela tried again. She went slowly and pressed the masa flat with the back of a spoon. Her uncle added the meat, and her mom folded each tamal and stood it up in the big pot.

By evening, the whole kitchen smelled like corn and chile. Daniela counted the tamales she had helped make. There were thirty-two. “Next year,” she said, “I want to learn how to fold them, too.”

The monarch butterfly is the state insect of Texas. Monarchs are orange with black lines and small white spots.

Every fall, millions of monarchs fly south across Texas. They are on their way to the mountains of Mexico, where they spend the winter. In spring, monarchs fly north again. Many of them stop to lay eggs in Texas on the way.

A mother monarch lays her eggs only on milkweed plants. Milkweed is the only food that monarch caterpillars eat. When a caterpillar has eaten enough, it makes a chrysalis. About two weeks later, a new butterfly comes out.

In some places, there is less milkweed than there used to be. People can help monarchs by planting milkweed in gardens and at schools.

Ricardo’s dog, Pepper, is very playful. She brings Ricardo her rope toy every afternoon and drops it at his feet. If he does not pick it up, she pushes it closer with her nose. Pepper only stops when Ricardo throws the rope across the yard for her to chase.

Kiara had her first soccer game on Saturday. Before the game, her stomach felt jumpy, and she kept tying and untying her shoes. Coach Hill smiled at her and said, “Break a leg out there!” Kiara laughed. She knew Coach Hill did not really want anyone to get hurt.

Sofia’s class planted bean seeds in paper cups. Each student put a cup on the shelf by the sunny window and gave it a little water every day. After one week, Sofia saw a tiny green shoot poking up out of the soil. “Mine is growing!” she said.