Daily reading practice is essential in honing and reinforcing your third-grader's ability to read proficiently. Build a variety of reading activities into your daily curriculum. Read out loud to students to reinforce letter sounds and blends. Ask students to read individually for a few minutes each day to allow time to practice sounding out words and build reading comprehension. Partner your third-graders with older students and have them read to each other. Ask students to read words around the school as you transition to and from different activities. Label everything in your classroom and periodically ask students to read the words.
When your students write, they are using their reading skills to put their ideas down onto paper. Ask your third-graders to write poems, skits or short stories. Then ask each student to read their writing to you or to the rest of the class. When your students are able to read what they have written, they will boost their ability to sound out words as well as their ability to comprehend what they are reading. Laminate and bind the books, and add them to your classroom library, which may also inspire your students to look forward to reading time.
Put your third-graders into different reading groups so they can practice their skills with their peers. Change the groups often to prevent boredom and to keep encouraging students to work together to hone their skills. Form groups based on ability so high-level readers can work together and lower-level readers can help one another. Other times, place your top readers with your lower readers to allow them to encourage their peers and teach their strategies for reading new words. Work with each group to help practice their skills, reinforce reading strategies and offer encouragement to your students.
Games are exciting and engaging for third-graders and can help boost reading skills. Write your spelling or vocabulary words on the board, but leave a few letters out of each. Put your class into teams and see which team can identify, read and write the most number of words in the least amount of time. Create word searches or crossword puzzles using your reading words. Computer and online games also can be entertaining ways to help your third-graders boost their reading abilities and comprehension.