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

This resource accompanies our Rethink 3rd Grade Science course. It includes ideas for use, ways to support exceptional children, ways to extend learning, digital resources and tools, tips for supporting English Language Learners and students with visual and hearing impairments. There are also ideas for offline learning. 

Students use a folded paper plate to mark the angles of shadows on a sunny day. They will measure the angle at several times during the day. The process can be repeated each month to gather more data and reinforce concepts.

This resource provides background information on how a sundial works and includes directions for making a basic paper sundial.

In this lesson, students measure the apparent path of the sun across the sky using a toilet plunger. Students will then generate questions as to why the sun appears to move, and what is really happening in the process. They will then construct paper astrolabes and measure the angle of the sun compared to earth (its declination).

In this activity, students observe changes in shadows over time in order to help develop a sense of Earth's motion.

This online module focuses on astronomy: changes in the day and night sky, orbits of the Sun, mooon, and Earth, and the phases of the moon.

In this lesson, students move a flashlight around an object to make and experiment with shadows. The activity can be connected to a storybook about a little bear exploring his own shadow, and also has connections to the geometry of a solar eclipse as the Moon and Sun cast a shadow onto Earth.

In this activity, a large sundial will be drawn with sidewalk chalk. Students will go outside throughout the day and make observation of how their shadow moves around the sundial.

In this lesson students will investigate shadows and realize that the sun is a source of light. Students will make observations and record their understanding in their science journals.

Students will investigate shadows by going outside and creating and measuring shadows throughout the school day.  

In this activity, students construct pocket sun clocks and keep track of the Sun's shadow. This will help reinforce for students the relationship between the Sun's motion and our concept of time.

Students will create a sundial from simple materials and use it to make observations, record, and interpret data about the movement of the sun during the day.

Students will create a sun clock out of simple items in order to tell time by the movement of shadows throughout the day.

Students will construct a sundial and use it to observe the movement of the sun through the sky over the course of a day by marking changes in the position of a shadow once each hour. Students determine the approximate time of solar noon at their school as indicated by the time of the shortest shadow. Students revisit the site on a subsequent day to estimate the time of day using their sundial.

In this short video, accompanying activity, and readings, students learn about the wildflowers at Medoc Mountain State Park. These resources examine how wildflowers survive and their role in their ecosystem.

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

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

In this lesson, students are introduced to the properties of light and shadow through experimentation and play.

Students experiment with shadows and light sources to understand the relationship between angle of illumination and shadow length.