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

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 resouce contains a lesson plan to use with The Albertosaurus Mystery written by Philip Currie.

In this lesson, students explore their towns using a variety of print and nonprint resources. By looking at brochures and other informational tools, students learn about some of the purposes for which people read and write. They also practice writing for a specific audience, revising their writing, and working collaboratively to create a brochure for new students just moving into town.

In this lesson designed for struggling readers, students are guided through a viewing of David Wiesner’s Tuesday, a wordless picture book. As students view the images, they are asked four different types of questions about the pictures. The questions range in difficulty from those with answers that can be found in the text to those that require inferences. Students learn to categorize questions by the four question types and use pictures to help them better understand a story. Students then apply what they learned to an independent reading of Istvan Banyai's Zoom. Students complete a worksheet with a series of questions about the story and then reflect on the usefulness of the questioning strategy.

In this lesson, students read Bullfrog at Magnolia Circle in chunks of three to five pages, each of while corresponds to a main idea about adaptations: habitat, predators and prey, and life cycle.

Text features is an important part of the English Language Arts informational writing curriculum. Students need to know to look for captions in nonfiction text and read them for help with understanding the text.

This lesson follows the same structure as Lesson 2, and begins a two-day close reading cycle with a new chunk of Bullfrog at Magnolia Circle. This time, the focus is on bullfrog reproduction and life cycle, and physical characteristics. Students again linger on just one section for two lessons, in order to both build their awareness of choosing words for effect.

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.

This lesson teaches students to investigate published texts to help them learn how to revise their writing to add words and phrases that will create sharp, sensory-rich experiences for their readers. Students will learn to use “the experts” for inspiration in their own writing, creating personal connections with various authors. The published texts that students use to inform their writing will become their personal “mentor texts.”

This activity for gifted learners might serve as a writing activity as part of a larger unit focused on scientific and/or historical non-fiction texts. Students will take part in close readings of a variety of informational texts throughout the unit focusing on text structure, sequence of events, cause/effect, use of illustrations/photographs/diagrams/etc. In this activity, gifted learners will work independently to close read Boy Were We Wrong About Dinosaurs! By Kathleen Kudlinski.  Using evidence from the book, students will craft an opinion piece arguing that oftentimes (especially in science) “being wrong is actually right,” in other words…it’s a good thing. They will prove this using evidence from Boy Were We Wrong About Dinosaurs! and extend the idea to another area of science or history…such as early thoughts about the Earth, moon and sun, or another area of science/history in which they already have an intense interest. 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.

Students will use their prior knowledge of land forms and water forms to identify and recognize land forms and water forms in Africa. Students will use a KWL chart to specifically describe what they know about land forms and water forms specific to Africa. Students will use the online resource of Google Earth and Epic Books and ask and answer questions while using informational texts and text features to gain an understanding of Africa's geography.This lesson was developed by Anjali Nair as part of their completion of the North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge program. This lesson plan has been vetted at the local and state level for standards alignment, Global Education focus, and content accuracy.

Students will use a safe search engine for kids on their own computers and work with a partner to gather information about an assigned land form or water form. Students will complete a graphic organizer in which they will use later to write an informational piece on their African topic.This lesson was developed by Anjali Nair as part of their completion of the North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge program. This lesson plan has been vetted at the local and state level for standards alignment, Global Education focus, and content accuracy

This lesson engages students in the upcoming project where they will be researching animals and habitats around the world. In the upcoming project, students will investigate place value (weight, size, height) of different animals across the world and generate awareness of the global concern of animal endangerment and extinction. Subsequent lessons will use prior knowledge of place value as students ask and answer questions using illustrations, text features, and search tools. This lesson was developed by Ashley Harris as part of their completion of the North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge program. This lesson plan has been vetted at the local and state level for standards alignment, Global Education focus, and content accuracy.            

This lesson plan engages students in a discussion about their own perspectives on endangered animals and habitat reduction. Students will summarize the perspectives of their peers and their different reactions to the issue of endangered animals and habitat reduction. Students will learn about acceptance of differing opinions and how their perspective influences the way the interpret information and apply content. This lesson was developed by Ashley Harris as part of their completion of the North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge program. This lesson plan has been vetted at the local and state level for standards alignment, Global Education focus, and content accuracy.            

Students will visit Google classroom and read about the different components of the field guide. Students will research their animals using the provided websites. Upon completion of the packet, students will begin working on a video script to communicate with their audience about what they have learned and how they can work together to help animals and their habitats. A poster can also be made for those wanting to do further research on the challenges that face their animals and habitat. This lesson was developed by Ashley Harris as part of their completion of the North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge program. This lesson plan has been vetted at the local and state level for standards alignment, Global Education focus, and content accuracy.            

 *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 lesson will incorporate the classic children's book Where the Wild Things Are, student research on habitats, student-created artwork of a habitat, and green screen technology.

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.  This research project should be assigned to students who demonstrate solid understanding of poetry (figurative language, structure, meaning) and are ready for a challenge as they work individually, or with a partner, to close read “Something Told the Wild Geese” by Rachel Field and then investigate…What is the “something”?  Using the information they discover in their research, they will create a complementary poem to “Something Told the Wild Geese,” explaining the scientific principal behind each stanza in verse which they will read to the class.  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 apply close reading skills they have been building in Lessons 2-5.