3rd grade Science: how to help at home
What your child learns in 3rd grade science in the California Content Standards, and simple things to try at home.
Focus areas this year
- Forces and magnets
- Life cycles, traits and survival
- Weather and climate
Easy ways to practice science at home
- Try a kitchen experiment, such as what dissolves in water and what floats or sinks.
- Keep a simple weather or moon log for a month.
- Ask “What do you think will happen?” and then test it.
- Visit a park, beach or creek and look for living things and their habitats.
What each unit covers
How Plants Grow & Change
From seed to flower and back to seed, how seeds travel, how plants react to light and seasons, and how they use sunlight, water and carbon dioxide to make food and release oxygen.
Pushes, Pulls & Forces
Forces as pushes and pulls, contact and non-contact forces (gravity, magnetism, static electricity), friction, how bigger forces change motion more, and helmets and seat belts as safety devices.
Basic Needs & Life Cycles
Practices the basic needs of organisms (food, water, air, shelter) and the life cycles of plants and animals, including metamorphosis in butterflies and frogs.
Speed & Motion
Practices speed as the distance an object travels in a certain time, inertia (objects keep doing what they are doing until a force acts), and how mass and force affect how quickly motion changes.
Traits & Variation
Practices how plants and animals inherit traits from their parents, how traits vary within a family, and how the environment can change traits like size or health.
Surviving in a Habitat
Practices why some animals live in groups, how small differences in traits can help some individuals survive, and why some organisms do well in a habitat while others cannot survive there.
Weather Hazards & Solutions
Practices judging design solutions that reduce harm from weather hazards like floods, windstorms, lightning and snow, and solutions to problems when habitats change.
Magnet Inventions
Practices using what magnets do to solve simple design problems, such as a latch or a sorter, by setting criteria and constraints and running fair tests that change one thing at a time.
Fossils & Long Ago
Practices how fossils form and what they show about plants, animals and environments long ago, such as sea fossils found on dry land and Ice Age fossils from the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles.
Weather & Climate
Practices reading weather data by season and comparing climates around the world, including California's dry summers and rainy winters, Sierra Nevada snow and desert heat.
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 practicing 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 California report card guide.
Common questions
Try a kitchen experiment, such as what dissolves in water and what floats or sinks. Keep a simple weather or moon log for a month. Keep sessions short, about 10 to 15 minutes, and stop on a success.
The California Content Standards 3rd grade science units include How Plants Grow & Change, Pushes, Pulls & Forces, Basic Needs & Life Cycles, Speed & Motion, Traits & Variation, Surviving in a Habitat.
Free printable 3rd grade science practice sheet
Questions from every unit, with an answer key.