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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 25 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.

Why Bread Rises

Yeast is alive. It is a fungus, and each grain of dried yeast holds millions of cells waiting for water. Add warm water and the cells wake up. They begin to feed on the sugars in the flour. As they feed, they give off carbon dioxide gas. The gas cannot escape, because kneading the dough has built a stretchy web of gluten that traps it. Thousands of tiny bubbles form, and the dough swells. In the oven, two things happen. The trapped gas expands in the heat, so the loaf rises further. Then the heat kills the yeast and sets the gluten, and the bubbles are locked in place. That is why bread has holes in it.

  1. 1. The author says the loaf rises further in the oven. What reason is given?
  2. 2. How is this text organised?
  3. 3. What traps the gas in the dough?
  4. 4. What kind of living thing is yeast?
2.Read the text, then answer the questions.

How a Windmill Grinds Flour

A windmill turns moving air into turning stone. The sails are set at a slight angle. Because of that angle, wind pushing on them cannot pass straight through, so it pushes them round instead. The sails turn a horizontal shaft. A large wooden gear on that shaft meshes with a smaller one on an upright shaft, which turns the millstones below. Because the smaller gear has fewer teeth, it spins faster than the sails do. Four turns of the sails can mean twenty turns of the stone. The grain falls between two stones. The top stone turns; the bottom one does not. The grain is crushed between them, and flour comes out at the edge.

  1. 1. The author says the stone spins faster than the sails. What reason is given?
  2. 2. Where does the flour come out?
  3. 3. How is this text organised?
  4. 4. How are the sails set?

LessonPrint · W.3.8 · Set 25 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Take Brief Notes

Set 25. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. The trapped gas expands in the heat. 2. As a chain of causes in time order, from dried yeast to the finished loaf. 3. A stretchy web of gluten built by kneading. 4. A fungus.
  2. 2.1. The smaller gear has fewer teeth. 2. At the edge of the stones. 3. As a chain of causes, following the movement from the sails down to the flour. 4. At a slight angle.

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.