Grade 3 Science: how to help at home
What your child learns in Grade 3 science in the Nunavut Curriculum, and simple things to try at home.
The Big Ideas this year
- Iqqaqqaukkaringniq: ways to describe and improve our world through science and technology.
- Life science, physical science, and earth and space science, as in the Common Framework of Science Learning Outcomes.
- Skills of inquiry and design, and links between science, technology, society and the environment.
Easy ways to practise 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
Science Skills & Safety
Making predictions and observations, running a fair test that changes one thing, using simple tools safely, the engineering design steps, debugging a simple program, and how science helps solve real problems.
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.
Speed & Motion
Practises 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.
Structures & Their Jobs
What makes something a structure, how its shape fits its job (a bowl-shaped nest, a sloped roof), structures built by animals and by people, and how they change the environment.
Strong & Stable
Strength as holding a load and stability as staying balanced, how shape, a wide base and materials help, and how struts (pushed) and ties (pulled) work in a frame.
Basic Needs & Life Cycles
Practises the basic needs of organisms (food, water, air, shelter) and the life cycles of plants and animals, including metamorphosis in butterflies and frogs.
Grouping Living Things
Biodiversity (the variety of life in a place) and sorting living things into groups by their features: backbones, legs, fur, feathers, fins and more.
How Scientists Find Out
Practises how science builds explanations: observing and measuring, collecting data, making a hypothesis and checking whether the evidence supports it, and how the knowledge is used in engineering and technology.
Solutions, Technology & Taking Action
Practises that problems can have many solutions, weighing benefits and drawbacks of technology, and taking action on local issues such as litter, safer structures and habitats.
Science All Around Me
Practises connecting science ideas to careers, hobbies and activities, and the scientific attitudes of curiosity and belonging: everyone can contribute to science.
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 Nunavut 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 Nunavut Curriculum Grade 3 science units include science skills & safety, pushes, pulls & forces, speed & motion, structures & their jobs, strong & stable, basic needs & life cycles.
Free printable Grade 3 science practice sheet
Questions from every unit, with an answer key.