Building Language Arts Skills
Grade 3
 

• Using the basic format of one of the stories you read, write a story together with your child. You write the first few lines or paragraph, have your child write the second few lines or paragraph, and so on. This could be a long-term project that gives you a look at your child's understanding of story sequence and word meanings; it also encourages your child to write creatively.
• Read newspaper headlines together and try to figure out what the story is about. This will help make the newspaper important to your child, as well as provide reading practice.
• Keep adding new words to your conversations. This is one means of expanding your child's language base.
• It is important that children know the names of objects in their environment; this is a base for future learning. You can gain insight into what your child knows by playing games. You might look at a photograph or illustration and say, "Let's find all the pine trees, birch trees, water towers, skyscrapers, grain elevators, movie theaters, " and so on.
• Give each other words, with the idea that you are to make up a story around the word. This is an interesting way to see what words your child is learning and how he or she understands them.
• Committing things to memory is a good exercise for the early years. Each of you memorize a poem or story to tell to the other.
• Play games based on words. For example, say, "I can visualize something that is blue and white and round and is in the living room. What is it?" You and your child take turns. Keep adding variables -- size, substance, or use -- to the descriptions.
• As you read a story to your child, occasionally ask, "What does that remind you of? What do you see in your mind?" Mental images are important to ongoing learning. You and your child might even try sketching the images.
• Folk tales and myths are typically part of the third-grade curriculum. See what your child knows about Robin Hood, Johnny Appleseed, Paul Bunyan, King Arthur, Brer Rabbit, Zeus, Apollo, or Prometheus. Read folk tales and myths to each other.
• Read signs together as you go for walks: stop signs, street names, product signs, billboards, and the names on cars, trucks, and buildings.

  
  Building Math Skills
  Grade 3
   

  • Count to 24 by fours, to 30 by sixes, to 40 by eight's.
  • Make up story problems around math facts such as 12-4=8. For example, 12 elephants started the race but 4 stopped along the way; how many finished? If the stories are silly or funny, so much the better.
  • Another way to see how well your child understands numbers is to play board games that call for markers to be moved forward and backward so many spaces -- for example, "Now you can move six spaces forward." A considerable amount of mathematics is embedded in games such as dominoes and Monopoly. Chess, which involves strategy as well as mathematics, would be a particularly good game to introduce and play.
  • Many games will reveal your child's knowledge of numbers as well as of words and directions. Play tic-tac-toe, dots, checkers, concentration, hangman, Scrabble, and increasingly complex card games.
  • Ask your child to use a ruler to measure something in the house -- a rectangular table, a room, a bookshelf. You will learn a good deal about your child's measurement skills.
  • See how many math symbols or notations you and your child can find in the newspaper. Such symbols might include +, -, =, ½, 10:15, a date such as 6/30/03, shapes such as a circle or triangle, or graphs.
  • There are many opportunities for counting during everyday activities. While cooking you could ask, "Can you count out eight potatoes?" or ask, "Can you put ten cookies and four apples on the plate for dessert?"
  • While cooking or baking, ask your child to read the recipe and measure the quantities of ingredients called for; three and a half tablespoons of sugar, two and a quarter cups of flour, and the like. This is a good way to see your child put math to use.
  • Fractions are part of the math curriculum in the third grade. Ask your child to explain, with examples, such fractions as 1/8, 1/16, and 1/32. Find such measurements on a ruler, a graph, a measuring cup, or a jar.
  • With a stopwatch, see how quickly your child can run 40 yards. Together, record and graph the times over several weeks. There are an almost limitless number of activities of this kind. You can also move into calculations such as, "How fast did you go per second in feet? In yards? Or, "If you continued to run at the same speed, how long would it take you to run 400 yards? How about 600 yards?"

  
  Building Science Skills
  Grade 3
   

  • Close observation is a primary objective of the science program. You and your child can examine a rock, a tree, a leaf, an animal, or an insect. Take turns asking, "What do you see?"
  • Observe the sky together. Ask, "What shapes do you see in the clouds?" "Where will you find the sun in the early morning?" "At noon?" "In the evening?"
  • Observe the moon together over several weeks; note whether you are looking at it at the same time every day or at different times. Note its location and draw its various shapes; be aware of the stars around it. Examine the moon chart in the weather section of your daily newspaper or on a calendar.
  • Can your child locate the North Star? Can he or she explain how it has helped explorers and outdoors people?
  • Ask about scientists your child may have heard of. What does he or she know about them?
  • Walks afford many opportunities to identify objects in the environment. You can ask, "What do you think that is?" "What kind of bird is that?" "Let's see how many different kinds of flowers we can identify in this block" (or park, or outdoor mall).
  • Together you and your child can name various parts of the body: the heart, lungs, blood, and bones. Talk about their functions.
  • Ask why it is important to get exercise, to rest, to eat well, to dress appropriately for various weather conditions, and to see a doctor when you are sick. See what your child is learning about health.
  • Engage in physical exercise together. Point out how important exercise is to good health. This is a good invitation to ask your child what he or she is learning about staying healthy.
  • Science in school increasingly gives attention to the sources of common things and to everyday processes. You and your child can investigate questions such as, "Where does our water come from?" "Where does our sewage go?" "What is the source of our electricity?" "How does a motor work?" "How does a plant grow?" "What causes cement to crack?"

    
    Building Social Studies Skills
    Grade 3
     

    • Watch the television news together on occasion. Let the events on the news become a basis for conversation. You might also watch documentaries about historical figures with your child; biography is a good basis for helping children learn about history.
    • Look at photographs together. Family pictures showing you and your child at different ages are a good choice. Ask, "What can you remember about these earlier times? What is different now?"
    • Look at photographs or children in other parts of the world. See whether your child knows where these children come from, and then ask him or her to tell you about the different countries the children come from.
    • Social studies in the third grade includes learning more about maps and various regions of the world. You might ask your child what countries he or she knows about. Can your child find these countries on a globe or a map?
    • Third-graders study the globe. Ask your child to pick out the continents -- Asia, Africa, South America, North America, Europe, Australia, Antarctica. Make a game of it, taking turns to find the continents. (You can do the same thing with the oceans.)
    • With a map or atlas, see if your child can use map coordinates (these are the guides maps have on the edges, usually numbers on one side and letters on another, rather than latitude and longitude.)
    • Ask what scientists, carpenters, mechanics, lawyers, plumbers, physicians, and nurses do. Take turns thinking of various occupations, perhaps starting with people you know or characters in books.
    • Children celebrate several different holidays in school. President's Day, Martin Luther King, Jr., Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, and in some settings Cinco de Mayo receive the most attention. These celebrations are good opportunities to ask your child what he or she has learned about the presidents, Martin Luther King, Jr., and various national traditions.
    • Ask your child to share with you what he or she has learned about different ethnic and cultural groups in and around your community. What has your child learned about African Americans, Hispanics, Vietnamese, and Cambodians?
    • Ask your child to describe how a skyscraper is built, how a car is made, how wheat is harvested, how bread is made, how oil is carried from one part of the world to another, and so on. You will learn about your child's growing understanding of the world.

    Reprinted from 101 Educational Conversations with Your 3rd Grader by Vito Perrone, published by Chelsea House Publishers.
    Copyright 1994 by Chelsea House Publishers, a division of Main Line Book Co. All rights reserved.
    

    
    

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