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Take Brief Notes is a free printable Grade 3 English worksheet on recording facts from a source without copying it out, aligned to Common Core standard W.3.8. It prints 2 questions with an answer key on its own sheet of paper, in 25 versions that each ask different questions, so no two pupils in the class work from the same page. Print it from the browser or download it as a PDF — no account, no email.

Set 12 of 25 · the same problems every time you open this link.

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Set 1 has all 25 in a single PDF. All 25 sets ask different questions.

Take Brief Notes

W.3.8

NameDate

Read the text, then answer the questions.

1.Read the text, then answer the questions.

The Salmon's Return

A salmon hatches in a river, swims to the sea, and comes back years later to the river it was born in. It finds its way home by smell. Every river carries its own mixture of soil, rock and plants, and a young salmon learns that smell before it leaves. The return journey is upstream. The fish leap waterfalls, sometimes several metres high, and they do not eat once they enter fresh water. Because it is not feeding, a salmon uses up its own body on the climb. By the time it reaches the gravel where it hatched, it is thin and worn. There it lays its eggs. Most Atlantic salmon die soon afterwards.

  1. 1. How is this text organised?
  2. 2. The author says the salmon arrives thin and worn. What reason is given?
  3. 3. How does it find its way home?
  4. 4. Where does a salmon hatch?
2.Read the text, then answer the questions.

Morse Code

Morse code turns every letter into a pattern of short and long signals: dots and dashes. The commonest letters were given the shortest patterns. E is one dot. T is one dash. Q, which is rare, is dash-dash-dot-dash. Because of that choice, an average message is much shorter than it would be otherwise. A message can be sent as sound, as light, or as taps on a pipe. That is why it survived so long: it needs almost no equipment. Timing carries the meaning. A dash is three times as long as a dot. The gap between letters is three dots long, and between words, seven. SOS was chosen because it is easy to recognise: three dots, three dashes, three dots.

  1. 1. What is the Morse pattern for E?
  2. 2. How is this text organised?
  3. 3. How long is a dash compared with a dot?
  4. 4. The author says Morse survived a long time. What reason is given?

LessonPrint · W.3.8 · Set 12 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Take Brief Notes

Set 12. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. As a salmon life cycle in order — gravel, sea, upstream, eggs — with the causes explained as it goes. 2. It does not eat in fresh water, so it uses up its own body on the climb. 3. By smell. 4. In a river, in gravel.
  2. 2.1. One dot. 2. By topic — what the code is, why it is efficient, how it is sent, and how timing works. 3. Three times as long. 4. It needs almost no equipment — it can be sent as sound, light or taps.

More practice for W.3.8

Take brief notes from sources and sort them into given categories.

Teaching this next? Taking Notes and Sorting Evidence is the 40-minute plan for it, with the misconceptions to expect.

All Grade 3 worksheets

Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to W.3.8 of the Common Core State Standards for English language arts.