This parent guide supports parents in helping their child at home with the 3rd grade English Language Arts content.

In this lesson, students read Pink and Say by Patricia Polacco to identify words that are unfamiliar to them. Working collaboratively in small groups, they discuss the meaning of these new words, using context clues from the text, prior knowledge, and both print and online resources. Students then apply their knowledge of the new vocabulary to further their understanding of the text.

This resource, which is a direct download, is a lesson plan for "Aero and Office Mike" by Joan Plummer Russell. "Aero and Officer Mike is an informational text about a police officer and his partner, a dog named Aero. Information about their daily routine, Aero's special talents, and Officer Mike's training is included.

This lesson introduces students answer questions using specific details from the text and explain what they understand about the topic being discussed.

This lesson is for Grade 3 on literacy. At Home Learning Lessons are a partnership between the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, PBS North Carolina, and the William and Ida Friday Institute for Educational Innovation.  Each lesson contains a video instructional lesson, a PDF lesson plan with a transcript, and a PDF file of extension activities.

This lesson is for Grade 3 on literacy. At Home Learning Lessons are a partnership between the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, PBS North Carolina, and the William and Ida Friday Institute for Educational Innovation.  Each lesson contains a video instructional lesson, a PDF lesson plan with a transcript, and a PDF file of extension activities.

In this lesson, students read Aunt Flossie's Hats to learn about family traditions and stories and how they keep families united across generations. Students discuss the text and respond to questions using the text to support their answers. Lesson opens to a Word document.

In this lesson, students explore adjectives through a read-aloud and develop a working definition of the term. They list as many adjectives as they can, then combine them with "to be" verbs to create simple sentences. Next, they are introduced to character traits by putting the adjectives from their list in the context of a character from a shared reading. They then use an online chart to equate the character traits with specific actions the character takes. Finally, students "become" one of the major characters in a book and describe themselves and other characters, using Internet reference tools to compile lists of accurate, powerful adjectives supported with details from the reading. Students read each other's lists of adjectives and try to identify who is being described.

This lesson introduces a new kinesthetic vocabulary activity (see Part B of Work Time). Students basically act out sentences from this section of Bullfrog at Magnolia Circle.

In this lesson, students continue close reading of pages 8-11 and 16-25 of Bullfrog at Magnolia Circle.

This lesson focuses on helping students to synthesize main ideas about the bullfrog. It also helps them to see how page 32 differs (in structure, style, and purpose) from the other pages of Bullfrog at Magnolia Circle.

A strong plot is a basic requirement of any narrative. Students are sometimes confused, however, by the difference between a series of events that happen in a story and the plot elements, or the events that are significant to the story. In this lesson, students select a topic for a personal narrative and then do the prewriting in comic-strip format to reinforce the plot structure. Finally, they write their own original narratives based on the comic strip prewriting activity, keeping the elements of narrative writing in mind. This lesson uses a version of "The Three Little Pigs" fairy tale to demonstrate the literary element; however, any picture book with a strong plot would work for this lesson.

In this lesson from Expeditionary Learning, students will perform a close reading of Thank You, Mr. Falker by Patricia Polacco. They will answer questions using specific details from the text and explain why they chose those details. Students will also use context clues to access new vocabulary. This is Lesson 2 of 10 from the unit Grade 3 Curriculum Map Unit 2, Module 1: http://engageny.org/resource/grade-3-ela-module-1-unit-2 .

Awareness and true understanding of other cultures can create the desire to take action. In this lesson, students learn about Palestinian Arabs. After exploring the culture in a book and online, students identify a current social issue that concerns them. In a formal letter written to an appropriate official, students identify these issues and discuss suggestions of ways the problems might be addressed.

Experiencing the language of great poets provides a rich learning context for students, giving them access to the best examples of how words can be arranged in unique ways. By studying the works of renowned poets across cultures and histories, students extract knowledge about figurative language and poetic devices from masters of the craft. In this lesson, students learn about personification by reading and discussing poems that feature this writing device. Then they use the poems as a guide to brainstorm lists of nouns and verbs that they randomly arrange to create personification in their own poems.

In this lesson, students describe characters in a story and describe how a character's actions contribute to the events in the story.

In this lesson, students answer questions using specific details from the text and determine the meaning of new vocabulary using clues in the text around a word.

This activity for gifted learners might serve as a culminating activity as part of a larger poetry unit. Students will take part in close readings of a variety of poems throughout the unit. In this activity, gifted learners would work either individually or with a partner to close read “Autumn” by Emily Dickinson.  They will then work to decipher the poem and it’s meaning, resulting in an audio recording of the original poem and visual display to complement their knowledge/understanding of the poem. They will then create their own humorous adaptation of  “Autumn” by translating the poem into their own nonliteral language, slang, phrases with a newly “remastered” audio recording of the poem and visual display to complement their knowledge/understanding of the poem in their own words. This lesson was developed by NCDPI as part of the Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted Instructional Resources Project. This lesson plan has been vetted at the state level for standards alignment, AIG focus, and content accuracy.

In this lesson, students answer questions using details from the text and explain why they chose specific details to answer questions from the text.

Students identify words which belong to the same family and understand the concept of an extended word family. Teacher Notes for the activity are in the database as a separate resource.

Students identify words which belong to the same family and understand the concept of an extended word family. The student pages for the activity are in the database as a separate resource.

This resource contains a vocabulary map that can be used to help students understand new vocabulary by thinking about the meaning of words in various ways.

In this module, students consider the guiding question: How do writers capture a reader's imagination? as they take a deep study of the classic tale Peter Pan.

 *To be completed after both reads using share read text “Gray Wolf, Red Fox” in student reading / writing companion - use activity below instead of vocabulary activity on page 136Using Wonders students’ Reading / Writing Companion, students will complete multiple readings of the shared read “Gray Wolf, Red Fox” and gain knowledge about wolves and foxes.  Students will read about how these animals adapt to challenges in their habitat. After multiple reads and activities surrounding the text, students will use the vocabulary and text evidence to complete a three column note sheet.  Using website Quizlet students will create electronic flashcards using information from a three column note sheet.  Students will share their electronic flashcards with a classmate to review terminology prior to completing a Google Form vocabulary quiz.

This cross-curricular lesson combines Social Studies and Language Arts to demonstrate how the study of an historical topic can be developed to make learning nonfiction more exciting, and also improve fluency and comprehension. This project about Benjamin Franklin includes a series of lessons in which the students: 1) read for information from multiple texts, 2) write a script for a Readers Theater play, 3) read for expression and fluency by using their script, 4) enhance their reading with visual arts, and 5) demonstrate dramatic interpretation through role-play. This approach engages students throughout in active participation and collaboration. Included are many supporting resources, such as a read-aloud rubric, an audition sheet, and ideas for student assessment and reflection.

Choose the correct Homophone that completes each sentence to decide which exercise to perform.

Paraphrasing helps students make connections with prior knowledge, demonstrate comprehension, and remember what they have read. Through careful explanation and thorough modeling by the teacher in this lesson, students learn to use paraphrasing to monitor their comprehension and acquire new information. They also realize that if they cannot paraphrase after reading, they need to go back and reread to clarify information. In pairs, students engage in guided practice so that they can learn to use the strategy independently. Students will need prompting and encouragement to use this strategy after the initial instruction is completed. The lesson can be extended to help students prepare to write reports about particular topics.

In this lesson, students will determine the meaning of new words using common Greek and Latin affixes and roots.

This activity for gifted learners might serve as part of a larger poetry unit. Students will take part in close readings of a variety of poems throughout the unit.  In this activity, gifted learners would work individually to close read “Fireflies” by Paul Fleischman.  They will then work to decipher the poem and it’s meaning, resulting in a new “Firefly Job Posting” (created in verse) to complement their knowledge/understanding of the poem.  They will then participate in a “Networking Event for Fireflies” with their peers and listen to others’ “firefly job posting” ideas, share their own ideas, and give/receive feedback regarding their ideas, word choice, metaphors, etc, which will culminate in a “Classified Ad” page for fireflies…. a compilation of the students’ work / poetic reinterpretations of “Fireflies.” This lesson was developed by NCDPI as part of the Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted Instructional Resources Project. This lesson plan has been vetted at the state level for standards alignment, AIG focus, and content accuracy.

In this lesson, students combine vocabulary exploration with word play by planning their own vocabulary parade, modeled on the activities in the text after a read-aloud of the picture book, Miss Alaineus: A Vocabulary Disaster. Students brainstorm a list of vocabulary terms from a recent unit of study and then design concrete ways to illustrate the terms. The presentation of terms can be in the form of a parade, or a video, which might play during parent conferences or open house.

In this lesson, students apply close reading skills they have been building in Lessons 2-5.

In this lesson, students independently apply close reading skills they have been building.

This lesson encourages students' natural curiosity about spiders and builds on their prior knowledge. After a shared reading of Diary of a Spider by Doreen Cronin, students work cooperatively using a strategy called Fact–"Faction"–Fiction to identify what they know, gather information, and create their own multimedia diaries using PowerPoint. Although the topic example used here is spiders, this lesson is easily adaptable to any content area topic.

This lesson teaches students to select personalized vocabulary words based on their interests and aspects of their everyday lives. Students work in groups to discuss and create their own vocabulary word lists and research their meanings. They create a "My World of Words Journal" with definitions and proper usage information and participate in an interactive journal share to receive feedback from their classmates.

This lesson, "Skim, Scan, and Scroll," taken from a research skills unit, is a step towards students completing a written research report. Here, students learn to read informational text, looking for supporting details. After the skills of skimming and scanning printed and electronic texts are modeled by the teacher, students practice the skills on their own.

This course was created by the Rethink Education Content Development Team. This course is aligned to the NC Standards for 3rd Grade ELA.

This course was created by the Rethink Education Content Development Team. This course is aligned to the NC Standards for 3rd Grade English Language Arts. 

This lesson encourages students to use common Greek and Latin affixes and roots to deconstruct and construct words. If they learn, for example, that micro means small and scope means see, they can deduce that a microscope is a device that enables an individual to see small objects. The students use the Morpheme Match-Ups handout and the Word Central website to engage in morphemic analysis of familiar and unfamiliar words. This lesson allows teachers to easily substitute their own affixes and roots for each activity.

In this lesson, students will use context to confirm or self-correct word recognition and understanding. Students will be able to use sentence level context to find meaning of words or phrases.

This lesson introduces students to using informational text features to learn vocabulary. Students are introduced to vocabulary notebooks.

Students use context to find out the meaning of words and analyze the elements that make up a word to find out its meaning. The text discusses the stages of life in the Sun. Teacher Notes for the activity are in the database as a separate resource.

Students use context to find out the meaning of words and analyze the elements that make up a word to find out its meaning. The text discusses the stages of life in the Sun. The student pages for the activity are in the database as a separate resource.

This video shows primary students using an Interactive Word Wall, a protocol, with words related to the unit of study (both domain specific and academic vocabulary). Students manipulate the words as they discuss relationships among the words and ideas. There are many ways to use an Interactive Word Wall; this video shows students doing concept mapping. First, the teacher restates the guiding question "How does a spider use its body to survive?" She has students pantomime to review key ideas and vocabulary. She then reviews with students the purpose of concept mapping: to articulate how the words are related to each other. Next, students work in small groups, manipulating vocabulary cards and symbols (e.g., arrows, equals) that help convey the relationships. The teacher circulates to check for understanding, clarifying misconceptions, and push student thinking. The teacher ends the class with students reviewing other groups' concepts maps to give specific feedback on what they thought was strong.

Use this Jamboard to help build vocabulary by finding synonyms and antonyms of given words. Vocabulary Web