Design activities to strengthen your third graders' writing skills, particularly those like punctuation, grammar, parts of a sentence, and paragraph composition. Open the summer school session with 10-15 minutes devoted to writing an entry in a summer journal. Suggest that students keep them to show their teachers in the fall. Students will also enjoy writing a sequel to their favorite book or reading together through a fun story to identify the parts of speech.
Addition and subtraction, money, the use of graphs and fractions will be discussed heavily in third grade math. Let your studens practice arithmetic at home and prepare them for the harder lessons by creating activities based around graphs and money. Ask them to graph the different types of recyclables found at home over the course of a week, or make word problems centered around money where they have to calculate the change given.
Transportation, government systems, maps, and geography are big parts of third grade learning. Incorporate geography by identifying the state capitals on a map of the United States. Talk about world geography, then break students up into groups and have them research a foreign country. Identify the countries on a world map. Expand on the lesson on maps by letting students draw a map of a favorite place like their neighborhood, the park or the zoo.
A good third grade science lesson will focus on nutrition, the food groups, zoology, or the water cycle. Work with your students to create a project based on water, such as learning about the tides. Teach students about lunar phases, then have them observe these from home. Let students research a favorite animal and give five fun facts about the animal to the rest of the class. Come up with ideas for healthy snacks, or count the calories in a well-balanced meal.