Grade 3 English Language Arts: how to help at home
What your child learns in Grade 3 english language arts in the Alberta Curriculum, and simple things to try at home.
The Big Ideas this year
- Speaking and listening: using eye contact, posture, gestures and movements to communicate, and listening with respect.
- Oral traditions carry shared knowledge for many First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities, and are shared with respect.
- Reading: reading words, phrases and passages fluently and with expression, and understanding how texts share ideas and information.
- Connecting what you read to your own experiences makes books, poems and plays easier to understand.
- Writing: using ideas from many sources of inspiration, and writing strategies, to create texts.
- Grammar, spelling and punctuation make writing clear.
Easy ways to practise english language arts at home
- Take turns reading a page aloud, and chat about what happened and why.
- Keep a short journal, with one or two sentences a day to start.
- Hunt for a new word a day and use it at dinner.
- Ask for a prediction before turning the page: “What do you think happens next?”
What each unit covers
Speaking & Listening
How a speaker's eyes, posture, gestures and movements help communicate, and what good listening looks like. Some families show respect in other ways, such as looking down, and the questions note this.
Oral Traditions
Oral traditions are a way many First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities share knowledge. Questions focus on respectful listening and asking permission. No stories are retold here, and each Nation has its own teachings.
Prefixes & Suffixes
Learning what prefixes (un-, re-, pre-, dis-) and suffixes (-ful, -less, -er, -ly) mean, finding base words and using new words in sentences.
Spelling Patterns
Spelling long vowel sounds with vowel teams (ai, ay, ee, ea, oa, ow, igh, ie) and adding -ed and -ing by doubling a letter, dropping a silent e or just adding the ending.
Word Jobs
Finding nouns (naming words), verbs (action words), adjectives (describing words) and adverbs (words that tell how) in sentences.
Sentence Smarts
Telling statements, questions, exclamations and commands apart, spotting incomplete sentences and joining ideas with so, but, or and because.
Punctuation Power
Choosing end marks, using commas in lists and dates, writing contractions and possessives with apostrophes, and putting quotation marks around speech.
Read and Think
Reading short original stories and non-fiction passages, then finding the main idea, details and order of events, making inferences and working out word meanings from context.
Story Elements
Naming the characters, setting, problem and solution of a story, describing how characters feel and what they are like, and finding a story's lesson.
Reading Patterns
Spotting cause and effect and order of importance, deciding who is telling a story, making inferences from clues, and using an index.
Fact or Opinion?
Telling facts (which can be checked) from opinions (what someone thinks), and spotting opinion words like best and cutest.
Connecting to What You Read
Relating personal experiences to stories, poems, plays and information books helps children understand what they read.
Ideas for Writing
Writers draw on memories, nature, pictures, books and conversations. Children practise planning, drafting, revising and editing.
What the report card levels look like at home
- Beginning
- Just getting started with this idea. Short, regular practice with lots of support helps most.
- Approaching
- Understands parts of it and is building confidence. Keep practising the tricky parts.
- Meeting
- Has it! Mixed review now and then keeps it strong.
- Exceeding
- Applies it confidently, even in new or harder situations. Try challenge mode and real-life problems.
Your child’s teacher decides the level on the report card. Read the Alberta report card guide.
Common questions
How can I help my Grade 3 child with english language arts?
Take turns reading a page aloud, and chat about what happened and why. Keep a short journal, with one or two sentences a day to start. Keep sessions short, about 10 to 15 minutes, and stop on a success.
What does my child learn in Grade 3 english language arts in Alberta?
The Alberta Curriculum Grade 3 english language arts units include speaking & listening, oral traditions, prefixes & suffixes, spelling patterns, word jobs, sentence smarts.
Free printable Grade 3 english language arts practice sheet
Questions from every unit, with an answer key.