in ,

Our Third Grade Homeschool Curriculum

Our Third Grade Homeschool Curriculum

Are you planning on homeschooling your child at the third grade level? Are you not quite certain about where to begin or what materials to use? One of the benefits of homeschooling is the freedom to choose materials that work for your kiddos. No single curriculum is a perfect fit for every family. Even within my own family, I have added or removed materials from my first child through my fourth child. In general, I use a variety of workbooks and other resources for my third grade homeschool curriculum. The following are the workbooks that I am using with my second child and will use with my third and fourth children. If you are interested in any of the materials, easily find copies on Amazon via my affiliate links.

I began homeschooling my oldest daughter in the fall of 2014. I start homeschool preschool with each of my children about age 3. After two years of preschool work, my kiddos start kindergarten around age 5. After completing kindergarten level work, I graduated my children to first grade around age 6. They then move onto second grade a year later around age 7. Upon finishing second grade work, I move my kids onto third grade. Fourth grade work then begins roughly a year later after the completion of the third grade.

Originally published on February 11, 2019. Updated on August 10, 2023.

Reading

After completing the second level of the McGraw-Hill Reading series,  , I moved her on to the third level (Book 1, Book 2) of the series. Each lesson begins with a “Stories in Art” reading passage for the child to read and then a read-together section on the author and/or illustrator of the subsequent reading. At the end of the reading are questions for the child to answer and some additional language arts activities. The reading become a little more difficult with each lesson and book. I also purchased the accompanying practice book for additional practice. We use the reading comprehension and study skills pages.

McGraw-Hill Reading Book 1
McGraw-Hill Reading Book 2
McGraw-Hill Reading Workbook

For additional reading comprehension practice, I included Reading Comprehension, Grade 3: Gold Star Edition (Home Workbooks) in our reading lessons. The 60-page workbook reinforces reading skills through short reading passages and a variety of questions and activities. We like the short practice activities, which offer a nice break from the longer and more intensive reading work. The activities are different from the ones found in our other reading books, which adds variety to our reading curriculum.

Reading Comprehension Grade 3 Carson Dellosa

I also use Read and Understand Poetry, Grades 3-4 to focus on reading and understanding poetry. The workbook contains 26 poems with activity pages. The first follow-up activity for each poem emulates the format on standardized language arts tests. Other activities cover skills such as literal comprehension, sequence, word meaning, context clues and inferences, and main idea and details.

Read and Understand Poetry, Grades 3-4

Grammar

Because of the many errors and problems in the grammar books for third grade currently available, I wrote my own third grade grammar workbook for my children. A Form-Function English Grammar: Level 3 is the third workbook in the elementary series that builds up to A Form-Function Description of the Grammar of the Modern English Language, a textbook and workbook that provides a descriptive grammar that strives to provide an objective description of English as used without value judgements.

A Form-Function English Grammar Level 3

The goal of Level 3 is to reinforce the word classes (parts of speech, grammatical forms) of English taught in Level 1 and Level 2. Level 3 includes nouns, determiners, pronouns, verbs, modal verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, coordinating conjunctions, correlative conjunctions, subordinating conjunctions, and interjections. Level 3 introduces additional pronouns and also introduces adjective phrases, determiner phrases, subject complements, gerunds, present participles as noun phrase modifiers, past participles, perfect aspect, adverb phrases and adverb phrase modifiers, functions of prepositional phrases, verb phrase complements, adjective phrase complements, adverbials, subordinating conjunctions (adverbializers), adverb clauses, main clauses, and sentence fragments.

Level 3 is recommended for ages 7 to 8 in second grade through third grade.

The answers to all the activities are located at the end of the workbook.

Writing

For formal writing lessons, I use portions of the 112-page Grammar and Punctuation, Grade 3 workbook. The black-and-white workbook covers 25 grammatical and punctuation topics including conjunctions, commas, and quotation marks that build on the topics learned in the second grade edition. Each section includes four pages of instruction and activities for a total of 25 instructional pages and 75 practice pages. As with the second grade workbook, I again use only the writing and punctuation portions because of errors in the grammar sections.

Grammar and Punctuation, Grade 3

I also include Weekly Real-World Writing, Grades 3-4 to help my children explore real-world purposes for writing with activities that demonstrate thoughtful and effective writing strategies. We use the first half of the workbook in third grade and the second half in fourth grade. The real-world topics include letters, journal entries, product opinions, advertisements, directions, and interviews.

Weekly Real-World Writing, Grades 3-4

For additional writing practice, I use the Narrative Writing printable workbook from Education.com. The writing workbook teaches students about narrative writing through activities that focus on sensory words, action verbs, supporting details, and point of view.

Narrative Writing

I additionally include All About Super Sensational Me! from Lakeshore Learning in our third grade writing curriculum. Each page of the journal includes prompts for writing, drawing, and answering questions. I like that the finished journal gives me a keepsake of my children.

All About Super Sensational Me Journal

I also continue lessons on handwriting within our writing lessons. I begin focusing more on learning to read and write cursive. We finish using the Complete Book of Handwriting from Carson Dellosa. Recommended for kindergarten through third grade, the first part of the book focuses on printing letters and then words, and the second half focuses on cursive. Once print handwriting is neat, I introduce cursive writing. Learning cursive offers cognitive benefits. Learning to read cursive is also important for reading older documents and for signing your name. We additionally use Cursive Writing (Practice Makes Perfect) and Learning to Write Cursive for additional practice.

Carson Dellosa Complete Book of Handwriting
Cursive Writing (Practice Makes Perfect)
Cursive Writing (Practice Makes Perfect)

Spelling

Rather than using word lists for spelling, I continued with word study using Structured Word Inquiry in third grade. For my main resource, I use the InSight Words (Volume 1, Volume 2, Supplement, and Inflections) decks from Linguist-Educator Exchange.

I also created the Teach a Student to Spell: Level 3 workbook for spelling lessons as a follow up to Teach a Student to Read. Teach a Student to Spell: Level 3 is the third follow-up workbook to the Teach a Student to Read reading program, which strives to teach students accurate and complete information about the English spelling system. Level 3 consists of 36 spelling lists of 12 words each. The spelling lists are based on the most common words in English and various sight word lists. The first goal of Level 3 is to teach more spellings of the most common English words and common English bases. Each list reinforces the graphemes taught in Teach a Student to Read. Some complex words are also introduced. Related words are noted. The second goal of Level 3 is to teach more English suffixes and spelling rules. Level 3 also introduces prefixes and connecting vowels. Words from Level 1 and Level 2 sometimes appear in Level 3 to reinforce spelling rules with prefixes and suffixes. Level 3 introduces word sums that contain three or more morphemes.

Teach a Student to Spell: Level 3

Vocabulary

My children began using McGraw-Hill Education Vocabulary Grades 3-5 to expand their vocabulary in the third grade. Focusing on a particular subject and including ten or more vocabulary words related to that topic, each vocabulary list includes definitions and example sentences followed by activities for practicing the words.

McGraw-Hill Education Vocabulary Grades 3-5

Math

For third grade math lessons, I selected Singapore Math Level 3 (US Edition) including the Home Instructor’s Guide (3A, 3B). The two textbooks in Level 3 teach mathematical concepts, and the workbooks provide additional independent practice. The US Edition has been minimally modified from the original Singapore edition to teach American money and include American English spellings. The textbooks follow a unique pattern of moving from hands-on demonstrations to picture drawings (concrete examples with pictures) and finally to the abstract (numbers and symbols) in a natural, easy-to-understand progression. The program aims to teach children to learn to think mathematically rather than just being able to solve math problems.

Singapore Math Level 3 (US Edition)
Singapore Math Level 3 (US Edition) Guide 3A
Singapore Math Level 3 (US Edition) Guide 3B

I also picked up Common Core Third Grade Workbook: Multiplication and Common Core Third Grade Workbook: Division from Landoll at the Dollar Tree. Both workbooks include math facts from zero through twelve as well as activities focusing on multiplication and division strategies, fact families, and word problems. I have copies of the 2014 edition. I use the workbooks to provide extra practice with adding and subtracting through colorful activities.

Common Core Grade 3 Multiplication
Common Core Grade 3 Division

For continued practice with money, I use DK Workbooks: Money Math, Third Grade. The 60-page workbook includes multiplication, division, fractions, area, volume, measuring mass, and solving problems involving time and money.

DK Workbooks: Money Math, Third Grade

Science

For science lessons, I selected the textbook Harcourt Science: Grade 3 and the accompanying workbook. The 720-page textbook contains six units that cover the topics of plants and animals, environments, Earth science, weather and space, matter and energy, and forces and motion. Each unit is broken down into smaller chapters and lessons. I especially like the questions at the end of each lesson, which allow my daughter to reflect on the information learned. consumable workbook reinforces the information from each lesson through vocabulary sheets, quick study guides, and writing practice.

Harcourt Science: Grade 3
Harcourt Science Grade 3 Workbook

Social Studies

After finishing the grade 2 social studies textbook and workbook, we move on to the Macmillan/McGraw-Hill Our Communities Grade 3 textbook and the accompanying workbook. The 295-page hardback book covers various social studies topics such as community, geography, history, and culture. The text is easy enough for my daughter to read on her own but engaging enough to keep her attention and provide adequate information on each topic. The accompanying 72-page workbook is essential for reinforcing the lessons in the textbook and covers vocabulary, writing, and other activities.

Macmillan/McGraw-Hill Our Communities Grade 3
Macmillan/McGraw-Hill Our Communities Grade 3 Workbook

In addition to the textbook and workbook, I also use the workbook DK Workbooks: Geography, Third Grade to supplement our third grade social studies lessons. The 60-page workbook topics include map reading, compass directions, continents, countries and states, borders, landforms, and more.

DK Workbooks: Geography, Third Grade

After completing the Ancient Civilizations activity book during first grade and Native Americans during second grade, we move on to History Pockets: Life in Plymouth Colonies, Grades 1-3 in third grade. The activity book covers the Voyage to the New World, The New World, Building a Village, Home Sweet Home, The Family, Working in Plymouth Colony, Going to School, and What Did the Pilgrims Give Us. Each reproducible section contains words to know, information booklet complete with illustrations, arts and crafts projects, and writing activities. My third grader completes each section over one or two days with a culminating portfolio to show the study of the Plymouth Colony.

History Pockets: Life in Plymouth Colonies, Grades 1-3

Health/Life Skills

For health lessons, I opt to continue using the same textbook series, Harcourt Health & Fitness: Grade 3 and the accompanying workbook. The 344-page hardback book covers health topics including your growing body, caring for your body, caring for your teeth, food for fitness, keeping fit and active, avoiding danger, staying safe, staying well, medicines and drugs, your feelings, your family, and caring for your neighborhood. The accompanying workbook provides practice that reinforces the information from each lesson. Most of the worksheet pages cover two or three lessons per page.

Harcourt Health & Fitness: Grade 3
Harcourt Health & Fitness: Grade 3 Workbook

In addition to the textbook and workbook, I also include My First Human Body Book as an additional activity book in our health lessons. The coloring book includes 28 drawings that explore muscles, bones, lungs, and other parts of the human body.

My First Human Body Book

Art

For art lessons, I continued using the 13 Children Should Know series of books. For third grade, I used 13 Artists Children Should Know, 13 Impressionism Artists Children Should Know, and 13 Art Inventions Children Should Know. We also used YouTube, trips to art museums, and other resources to learn more about various artists, artworks, and art styles.

13 Artists Children Should Know
Impressionism: 13 Artists Children Should Know
13 Art Inventions Children Should Know

Our Second Grade Homeschool Curriculum

Our Second Grade Homeschool Curriculum

Our Fourth Grade Homeschool Curriculum

Our Fourth Grade Homeschool Curriculum