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

The North Carolina Museum of Natural Science created this resource as part of an online workshop series, but you are welcome to use or modify it for your classroom. It includes a video and written directions for creating nature journals and tips for incorporating them into your classroom. For information on taking any the Nature Neighborhood online workshops for CEUs or EE credit, visit: https://naturalsciences.org/learn/educators/online-workshops.

In this lesson, students will access their school- or district-approved search engine to research ways to help an African community. Prior to the research class period, the teacher should model the process using a template (see attached example) that will guide the students in gathering information. During the research class period, the teacher will monitor the students' research and assist as necessary with finding sites, writing down important information, etc. Students will then create a persuasive essay outlining reasons the rest of their third grade classmates should help support a fundraising project in support of that community. Throughout the writing process, the teacher will provide feedback as necessary (see lesson plan below) and monitor the students' progress. This lesson was developed by Amber Honeycutt 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.            

The students will create a persuasive letter to the school administration asking/persuading them to help raise money for Water for South Sudan. This lesson was developed by Margaret Derrick 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 is a supplemental resource for the lesson: "The Heat Is On." It is a performance indicator that can be used to assess student understanding of the concepts addressed by the lesson. Students will describe a super hero who has the power to either add or remove heat from matter, and create a resume and illustration to depict their super hero.

Students will read a description of a conclusion, a prompt, a template, and a checklist. The students wil then write in order to complete the template and respond to the checklist questions. This resource supports English language development for English language learners.

Students will read a prompt and write a response about saving water or electricity. Students will then draw a picture to accompany their writing. This resource supports English language development for English language learners.

Students will read a prompt that includes probing questions in order to write an essay about the meaning of freedom. This resource supports English language development for English language learners.

The NC Kids' Exploration Journals are a fun educational tool to help youth explore their communities and natural surroundings! Each journal contains: 18 multidisciplinary activities with guided prompts, 6 lined journal pages for recording observations and reflections, and 4 blank pages for individual creativity.

The digital versions of the journal are designed to be printed out for students either as individual activities or in its entirety so that they can explore their school yard, local park, or own backyard. Though designed for 1st - 5th-graders, older audiences may enjoy them too! They are also available in both English and Spanish languages.

While supplies last, hard copies of the journals are currently available for free to teachers by contacting karen.ipock@ncdcr.gov.

This resource contains an opinion writing graphic organizer, along with first draft and final writing paper.

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

This resource accompanies our Rethink 3rd Grade ELA 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.  

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 activity for gifted learners might serve as a culminating activity as part of a larger unit on fables, folktales, & myths. Students will take part in close readings of a variety of stories throughout the unit (including fables, folktales, & myths).  In this activity, gifted learners would work either individually or with a partner to closely read Amos & Boris by William Steig.  They will then work to decipher the central message(s) of the story and what fable(s) this story can be connected to.  As they read, they will pay special attention to two main details that help to convey the story:  the word choice and illustrations.  Using the central message of the story as an anchor and the saying, “A picture’s worth a thousand words,” they will then argue that the Steig’s word choice and illustration do or do not support the story’s central message in the best possible way by creating an audio/visual presentation that supports their argument.  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.

This writing activity for gifted learners might serve as a culminating activity or final assessment as part of a larger fiction-based genre study. Students will take part in close readings of a variety of fictional genres throughout the unit, such as parables, fables, folktales, fairy tales, myths, novels, and even poetry.  In this activity, gifted learners would work independently to close read The 13 Clocks by James Thurber. They will work to decipher the story and it’s genre, analyzing major components of the story (such as a central message, characters, setting, and/or events in the story) and evaluating those components by the various genre criteria they learned about in class and through their own online research.  This will culminate in an opinion piece arguing as to the genre of The 13 Clocks and potentially the creation of a new genre.  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 read, discuss and write about the novel Wonder by RJ Palacio.