One of the best ways for young students to learn about language skills is to use them through writing. Encourage your third-grader to write about his favorite hobby or create a story about a place he would like to visit. Discuss proper punctuation and grammar when reading the story with your child.
Mad libs are a good way to teach parts of speech to third-graders. Free mad libs are available on several websites (see Resources), or make your own. Write a short story, then remove some adjectives, nouns, verbs and adverbs. Have your pupil choose his own words to fill in the blanks. This activity is fun for children and teaches an essential third-grade skill.
Create postcards at no cost using photos you already have in your home. Your third-grader can write a letter on the back and give it to a friend or family member. Writing a postcard can help hone vocabulary, grammar and sentence structure skills.
Sentence Scramble is a fun way for children to learn how to create compound sentences. Write 10 simple sentences on one color of construction paper, and 10 conjunctions on construction paper of another color. Ask each child to choose two sentences and a conjunction, and see what silly sentences can be made.