Choosing To Develop Through Education

Developing Appropriate Learning Activities And Strategies For 3rd Graders

19 June 2018

Soham Berry

Third grade seems to mark a demarcation in school. Children are state tested in the third grade, they are able to read independently, and they can begin to cultivate learning interests in ways that they often haven't before. If you're looking to prepare your soon-to-be-third-grader this summer, you will need to find appropriate and challenging learning activities and strategies.

Here are some activities to consider:

Literacy

An appropriate learning activity has two principle components: 1) it suited for the age/learning experience of your child, and 2) it challenges, but doesn't overwhelm your child.

• Reading with a movie: nothing says summer like a good movie. You can channel this natural inclination to develop reading skills by pairing a movie with a book. Scour the up-coming movies in your area and/or in your movie collection for movies based on children's books. You can pitch the plot of each book to your child. An easy way to tell if the book/movie you're considering is an appropriate learning activity for your child is to conduct a short, formative assessment.

To formatively assess the book/movie you're considering, have your child read a random page out of the book. Time them as they read (to gauge how long it's likely to take them to read the book) and ask them to underline (in pencil if you're just borrowing the book) any words they don't recognize. If they mark more than 5 words on the page, then it's likely not a good choice for you child.

Science

Many third graders begin more intensive explorations of scientific concepts and disciplines. You can give them a head start on this process with a simple science experiment.

• Measure and Compare: you can create a simple experiment with a few household chemicals. Adding baking soda and vinegar to a large measuring cup creates a natural reaction. You can have your child measure and compare the differences that occur when you change the ratio of baking soda and/or vinegar. As they note the differences between the reactions, they can calculate them too. In the end, you can challenge them to predict how much foam will be generated from 1 cup of vinegar and 1 teaspoon of baking soda.

To ensure that it's an appropriate learning activity for your child, however, you'll need to test their basic math and reasoning skills. Having your child compare the amount of liquids in two measuring cups will help you determine if they have the math skills to complete the experiment.

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