J3 SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES TERM 2

• Support students’ independent reading by encouraging series reading. Series books make it easy for kids to want to keep reading: they can follow the same characters, similar plotlines, and familiar settings across pages and pages. It’s a natural stepping stone to reading longer books. Some wonderful series aimed at third graders:

  • Olga and the Smelly Thing from Nowhere, by Elise Gravel

  • Anna Wang series, by Andrea Cheng

  • My Big, Fat Zombie Goldfish series, by Mo O’Hara

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• Talk to your child about the characters in their books. J3 readers are thinking a lot about characters. They are noticing and tracking characters’ traits and motivations. You could ask your child to talk about what kind of people their characters are, and what they want or what is driving them. You could ask your reader to give you examples of times the characters made successful or unsuccessful choices, and have a conversation about what you think about these examples.  

• Read aloud longer chapter books as a family. Third graders are on the cusp of being able to read longer and more complicated stories; most of them can’t quite read these kinds of books on their own yet. But the support of hearing the book read aloud, and stopping to talk about the twists and turns and to remember who’s who - this can make books that are more independently appropriate for fourth graders more accessible to younger readers. An example of this kind of book is the Superfudge series by Judy Blume, or the Geronimo Stilton series.

• Support children’s opinion writing by encouraging them to elaborate on their ideas. Third graders are working on opinion writing this term. You can support this work by prompting children to say more about their requests, preferences, or reactions. If they loved a movie, you could ask them to say why, and give some examples. If they want to go to a particular playground, ask them to back this up with specific reasons. You could also stage mini-debates: is chocolate or vanilla the best ice cream flavor? Why?

• Visit the American Museum of the American Indian. Third graders will be studying indigenous peoples in their Humanities classrooms. This museum is an excellent resource for extending their thinking about how indigenous peoples have affected and continue to contribute to the culture and technology of this country.

• Read picture books by and about indigenous people. This website, curated by the Muskogee Creek author who wrote one of J3’s read alouds this term, suggests books featuring a range of representations of people from a variety of tribes. This can help to support a complex understanding of Native Americans and their continued role in contemporary culture. 

• Make 10 This is a card game that your child will play in class. It is based on the classic 'Go Fish" but has a twist - instead of finding matching pairs, you need to find pairs that make a total of 10.

• What are the coins? You will need a group of various coins. Ask your child questions such as, I have three coins in my pocket. They are worth 7 cents. What do I have? (a nickel and 2 pennies). More sample questions here.

• Super Sums You will need playing cards, paper, pencil. Complete instructions here.

• Make the Most of It You will need playing cards for this place value game. See complete instructions here.

• Squeeze Play Another playing card game this time with a focus on difference. Complete instructions here.

J3 is a big year for building new connections in mathematical understanding. It is important for students to use language as a bridge from what they know to the new concepts they are encountering. A great way to practice this is to discuss stories where math plays a role. Here is a list of some children’s books that contain ideas related to our work in this mathematics unit. 

• Create Groups of 10 (can also be changed to practice with other number totals)

• Find the Next Number in a series while playing Whack-a-Mole

• Find the Matching Sums while Playing Addition Concentration

• Game that Uses Colored Balls to Show the Process of Addition

• Practice with Double Facts with a Robin Hood Theme

• Place Numbers in Order On a Number Line

• Vertical Addition with Numbers to 12

• Create Number Strings that Equal a Given Sum by Making Your Frog Hop on Numbered Rocks

• Addition Tic Tac Toe

• Practice with Doubling Numbers

• Part Part Whole Game that practices combinations of 100 

• Practice Recognizing Place Value in a standard number and represented as rods and cubes 

• Math Concentration with two-digit addition

National Library of Virtual Manipulatives  Organized by grade band and math concept, this Utah State University site contains a wide selection of virtual manipulatives.