Grade 3 Science: how to help at home
What your child learns in Grade 3 science in the Prince Edward Island Curriculum, and simple things to try at home.
The Big Ideas this year
- Life Science: Plant Growth and Changes.
- Earth and Space Science: Exploring Soils.
- Physical Science: Invisible Forces.
- Physical Science: Materials and Structures.
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
Plant Parts & Needs
Roots, stems, leaves, flowers (with the stamen and pistil), fruit, seeds and cones, plus what plants need to live: air, water, light, heat, nutrients and space.
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.
Plant Experiments
Children sort seeds, predict and test which conditions help plants grow, and record and graph plant growth. This is practice, not a report-card mark.
What Is Soil?
Children explore the make-up of different soils, compare them, and see how living things and soil affect each other. This is practice, not a report-card mark.
Soil and Water
Children compare how well different soils soak up water, graph results, and see what moving water does to soil. They also use earth materials to make useful objects. This is practice, not a report-card mark.
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.
Magnets and Static
Children explore how magnets attract and repel, which materials magnets pick up, and how static electricity works in everyday life. This is practice, not a report-card mark.
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.
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.
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 PEI 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 Prince Edward Island Curriculum Grade 3 science units include plant parts & needs, how plants grow & change, plant experiments, what is soil?, soil and water, pushes, pulls & forces.
Free printable Grade 3 science practice sheet
Questions from every unit, with an answer key.