3rd Grade Tools for Common Core Activities (by date, latest first)

Holiday bundle includes 6 holiday Get Fit stories and editable word file overview handout with sight words lists:

1. Frank N. Stein’s Haunted House (October: Halloween)

2. Tom the Turkey Takes a Break (November: Thanksgiving)

3. A Veteran’s Day Celebration (November: Veteran’s Day)

4. The Vanishing Valentine’s (February: Valentine’s Day)

5. Lucky the Leprechaun Looks for Gold (March: St. Patrick’s Day)

6. Santa’s Missing Suit (December: Christmas)

Get Fit Action Stories: Frank N. Stein’s Haunted House

Get students exercising and moving as they follow along with Frank N. Stein's move to a new neighborhood, where he finds new friends to help make his house a home. Action words include: 

looked around
moped
juggled
skipped rope
frown
blow
shivered and shook
dropped to the ground
ran
slammed
quiver
danced
stood still
knock
jump
shook hands
waved
stepped to the right
boogied to the Monster Mash
shouted, 
“Happy Halloween!”

Practice/assess coordination, comprehension, fitness, following directions, listening, and sight words with Get Fit Action Stories. Use for daily warm-ups, rainy day indoor activities, PE, reading, and learning styles. Fun and enjoyable for all!

Get Fit Action Stories: Tom the Turkey Takes a Break

What happens when Tom the Turkey decides not to participate in Thanksgiving? This active learning book includes listening and sight words that are physically acted out when read aloud. Get fit while reading and learning! 

Action words include:

1. gobbled and hopped
2. yelled, “Stop!” 
3. sat on the ground
4. Shake a leg 
5. wave your hand
6. jumped up and down
7. gobble, gobble…
8. shook hands
9. stretched and yawned
10. looked around
11. frowned
12. smiled
13. ran
14. stood frozen
15. remained frozen
16. shaded his eyes
17. Beep, beep
18. wriggled
19. yelled, “Happy Thanksgiving!”

Includes short story elements that can also be taught. Meets CCSS for assessment of listening, following directions, sight words, vocabulary, and more...Have fun exercising and learning with Tom the turkey!

Get Fit Action Stories: A Veteran’s Day Celebration

What is Veterans Day? When does it fall each year? What kinds of celebrations honor our veterans? Students get an introduction and definition of Veterans Day, plus why it is different than Memorial Day. Then, get ready to join the parade! Play ball, watch fireworks, and thank a veteran for serving!

Get Fit Action Stories combine reading, sight words, listening, speaking, directions, and physical education into one assignment. It's a fun, physical learning adventure!

Action Words included:
1. salute
2. clap
3. Miss America wave
4. struts
5. moves a scepter up and down
6. twirl
7. toss
8. catch
9. plays a violin
10. toots a horn
11. beats a drum
12. pedal
13. flip hamburgers
14. toss salads
15. swing bats
16. hit homeruns
17. yells, “Ewwwww” then
“Awwwww”
18. “Thank you!”
19. salute
20. “Happy Veterans Day!” 

Get Fit Action Stories: The Vanishing Valentines

What happened to Ms. Vee's Valentine's Day cards? Exercise and read along to uncover the Valentine's Day mystery with this Get Fit Action Story.

Includes:
Directions
Example
Action Word List

Actions include: 
1.look up and down
2. picked flowers
3. Boo-hoo! Wah-wah!
(cry)
3. magnifying glass and looked
4. jumped rope
5. cooked
6. fly
7. winked
8. close our eyes
9. count to ten
10. lifts weights
11. prowls under rocks
12. bounces 
13. hold on to your heart
14. delivered
15. “Happy Valentine’s Day!” 
shouts

Meets CCSS reading guidelines. Great for building motor skills and reading skills. Students will enjoy learning and exercising with The Vanishing Valentine's story! 

Get Fit Action Stories: Lucky the Leprechaun Looks for Gold

Can Lucky find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow? What happens when he runs into Mr. Dragon? Can a leprechaun and dragon become friends? Exercise and practice sight words on Lucky's journey to find the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. 

Includes:

Directions
Sight Words and Exercise List:
dance a jig
hunt rainbows
eat
sleep
watch for rainbows
looks up
jumps
points and yells “There’s a rainbow!”
runs
tiptoes
sidesteps
skips
sits
rests
cheers, “Hip-hip hooray!”
waves a club
link arms and dance a jig
shake hands
share the gold
Wish your friends 
“Happy St. Patrick’s Day!”

Excellent for bad weather days, physical education classes, ELA sight word practice, motor coordination, and visual imagery skills. Fun and engaging! Meets CCSS.

Get Fit Action Stories: Santa’s Missing Suit

Where is Santa's missing red suit? Help Evie the elf as she recruits other elves, reindeer, and snowmen to help find Santa's red suit. Will Santa's famous yearly trip be delayed?

Each page contains action word(s) for students to physically act out. Words include: 

1. snored
2. danced a jig
3. hummed
4. checked and double checked
5. shook hands
6. whistled
7. looked under
8. tiptoed
9. pawed
10. searched
11. made snowballs
12. tossed
13. hop
14. shook their heads and yelled, “No!”
15. jumped up and down
16. slowly cracked open the door
17. peeked
18. waved
19. shouted, “Ho, ho, ho…Happy holidays!”

Meets CCSS for speaking and listening, reading foundation skills, and physical education. Have while learning and searching for Santa's missing red suit!

Practice inferencing and real life connections with these ten exercises for individual, small or whole groups. Visual clues provide inference activities for students to draw conclusions. Answers can be drawn or written, and students.

Celebrate Earth Day with 40 pages of Earth Day related images for writing fact-based poems and prose.

Includes:

5 title pages

Directions with optional activities

30 Earth Day graphics (earth, recycle, alternative energy, pollution, and more!)

5 The End pages

Great for Civics, Government, Social Studies, and meets ELA standards.

Use as:

Individual poems/prose writings

On-demand writing

Practice concepts/skills from mini-lessons

Practice peer workshopping strategies

Publishing opportunities

Celebration of Earth Day

See Educator Helper's other Earth Day products!

Free weekly handout at www.bethhammett.blogspot.com

22 story maps for illustrating storytelling to writing activities. These hobby and life maps are excellent as first week icebreakers, using oral narratives to start the writing process, and learning more about students. Use as individual/small/whole group activities. Meets CCSS. Includes: Directions Example 2 Teacher Maps Singer Traveler (Local, State, US, World) Artist Baseball Softball Basketball Soccer Football Reader Writer Technology Music Dancers (Male & Female) Science My Life Story 3 Blank Story Map Templates Students will have fun while being engaged as they learn about their classmates, draw symbols for life events, write captions, and use storytelling as part of their writing process.

Reinforce word origins by having students come up with their own made-up words! Use compound words, foreign words, prefixes/suffixes, shortened words, sound words, rhyming words, etc...for this fun, visual activity. Includes: Directions Definition Example from Classic Poem Student Examples Application Activity Publishing Activities Meets CCSS, improves vocabulary, uses decoding skills, and visualization. Use for individual or group activity.

June is Dairy Month, so get students learning about cows with these fourteen activities for group or individuals that use critical thinking skills. Includes: Coloring handouts (2) KWL chart Calendar to fill in with dates & dairy items; star the items Maze Poem or Story writing Milkman United States' map activity Cow or Dairy Facts Decorate the Cow Skull List as many dairy items as possible Graph to chart Cow Confusion true or false activity Thumbprint cows (to use with inkpad) Know and label the parts of a cow For use with science or social studies units. Can be used for assessment and with differentiated classes. Meets CCSS.

Introduce Semi-Colons, Colons, Dashes, and Hyphens with this 14 slide presentation. Includes: definitions examples practice sentences peer workshopping component comprehension checkpoint & answers extra resources This PowerPoint gives students everything they need to successfully use each of the "Other Punctuation Marks" within their essays! Easy to read and follow with color-coded examples. Can be used for ELL/GT/AP and flipped classrooms. Meets CCSS guidelines.

Students learn to write a thesis statement with this interactive presentation. Comes with: Handouts Examples Individual and group writing activities Peer Workshopping Answer Key Supplemental Resources Easy to understand, implement, and use as introduction, reinforcement, or assessment. Meets CCSS.

What is a rough draft? How do you find a topic? How do you get started? How does it work as part of the writing process? All this and more answered as students work through the easy-to-follow guide for the rough draft process of writing. Includes: Rough drafts are bad caption/image Writers compose in different ways Writing process and overview Reflection activity Methods for starting: Chunk writing,Cluster/Map, Free writing, Outline Let's Practice activity Taking a risk with rough drafts Tips: Using your writing toolbox, taking a break between drafts, and Can you read this? Rough draft strategy slide and begin your rough draft Reminder of writing process for peer workshopping Everything needed to help students understand and begin their first rough drafts! Excellent for flipped classrooms and writing centers!

Students participate in the story of Ron's Race Car Adventure by acting out action words. Follow along with Ron as he begins the race, struggles to keep the lead, and uncover whether he wins the race. Action words include: 1. waved 2. jumped up and down 3. climbed 4. dropped 5. turned the wheel right and left 6. mashed 7. raised their arms 8. dashed 9. wiped his brow 10. fell 11. waved 12. frowned 13. wrinkled his nose 14. shook his right fist 15. looked to the right 16. rolled eyes 17. pushed right foot down 18. lunged 19. cheered 20. shook hands Get active in the classroom and study action words at the same time! Engage students in stories that encourage physical activities to promote exercise and healthy lifestyles. Great for daily warm-ups, test days, and indoor rainy day fun. Helps with listening skills, visualization, sight words, physical fitness, and more...Great exercise for all! Meets CCSS.

What is multigenre writing, and how can you use it in your classroom? This Common Core, across-curriculum, interactive presentation includes: Fact-based/non-fiction or fictional Defining: "Multi" and "Genre" Student examples of multigenre projects Interactive small group activity for introducing multigenre Research and extra resources on multigenres 2 levels of assignments: lower and upper Brainstorming Topics chart Find Your Topic graphic organizer Multigenre list for choosing types of writings Peer Workshopping guide Supplemental Resources Works Cited Ready to use with students, and a great way to re-visit an old topic or to revive research essays, whether using non-fiction or fiction. Can be used to introduce topics or as assessment for unit or research for any discipline.. Multigenre activities are engaging, educational, meaningful, and fun.

A fun way to introduce compare and contrast writing through collaborative learning and peerworkshopping for elementary, ELL, and emergent writers. Includes: Group exercise for working with compare and contrast Interactive comparing/contrasting essay writing assignment Handouts for group/individual listings (graphic organizer) Slide by Slide writing guide: intro, bodies, conclusion Easy to follow examples Thesis Intoduction Relationship Words handout Peer workshopping component Scoring rubric for grading Diploma for mastery of compare and contrast essay Great way to get students to discuss concepts and skills. Easy introduction for lower level learners. Also, great icebreaker activity! Students will be excited about compare and contrast writing Meets CCSS.

Students produce personal narratives from memories with this 21 page guide that used the writing process. Includes: Attributes/Characteristics of Narrative Essay Overview of Writing Process Creating life maps (with student examples) Narrowing topics--prewriting stage with examples Narrative writing examples Online Reading: Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge Peer workshopping with guided questions: Revision and Editing Final Essay Stage Publishing/Sharing Scoring Rubric Extra Resources The 21 page guide is self-explanatory. It includes interactive writing activities along with using the writing process and peer workshopping strategies to teach narrative writing. Weblink to the online narrative book Gordon Wilfred McDonald Partridge by Mem Fox (by Screen Actors Guild) is excellent! Engaging and fun lesson that meets CCSS.

Learn about the Great Depression era through 42 pages of coloring and comic book frames with additional blank templates for creative fact-based writing and assessment. Topics Include: Timeline 1929-1941 President Hoover Stock Market Crash Unemployment Rates Food Riots Immigration Bank Failures Domestic Government Programs President Franklin D. Roosevelt (and re-elections) New Deal Dust Bowl and Eyewitness Accounts Dorothea Lange and Migrant Mother photo John Steinbeck and Grapes of Wrath Minimum Wage Pearl Harbor Germany and World War II Fun, engaging way to learn about the Great Depression era of U.S. History with fact-based writing activities for critical thinking and reinforcement. Meets CCSS and TEKS.

Where is Santa's missing red suit? Help Evie the elf as she recruits other elves, reindeer, and snowmen to help find Santa's red suit. Will Santa's famous yearly trip be delayed? Each page contains action word(s) for students to physically act out. Words include: 1. snored 2. danced a jig 3. hummed 4. checked and double checked 5. shook hands 6. whistled 7. looked under 8. tiptoed 9. pawed 10. searched 11. made snowballs 12. tossed 13. hop 14. shook their heads and yelled, “No!” 15. jumped up and down 16. slowly cracked open the door 17. peeked 18. waved 19. shouted, “Ho, ho, ho…Happy holidays!” Meets CCSS for speaking and listening, reading foundation skills, and physical education. Have while learning and searching for Santa's missing red suit!

Everything students need to know about Abraham Lincoln! And,written in comic book format that comes with a second set of pages that have blank text boxes for students to paraphrase/summarize/research then fill-in facts. Includes: Early Life: Birth, School, Manhood, Death of Mom, Step-Mother Young Adult Years: Employment, Politics Famous Quotes Law License John Todd Stuart, First Law Partner Mary Todd Lincoln & Marriage Four Sons (Birth & Death) Political Timelines Speeches (House Divided, 2 Inaugural Speeches,Gettysburg Address, Last Address) Political Slogans Noah Brooks' reporter's viewpoint Black Hawk War Civil War Ford Theater Death Fun, easy, interactive way to learn facts about Abraham Lincoln, his life and political career. Can be used for ELA, history, social studies, as well as plays, bulletin boards, posters, etc... Meets CCSS fact-based, non-fiction standards.

13 magazine-like covers/handouts designed to help students master CCSS genre study elements for non-fiction texts. After studying real magazine covers, have students choose their favorite topic and fill-in the information. Color the images for great classroom displays! Includes directions and suggestions for use and connections for Common Core subjects. Magazine covers handouts include: Animals, Games, Gardening, History, Math, Music, Reader, Science, Sports, Technology, Writer, Blank Form Can be used for inferencing, main ideas, paraphrases,spelling, summaries, titles, vocabulary, and more...

Introduce character traits to students then tie the concepts to real life with this pot o' gold activity. Students choose one character trait to define each of their classmates. Then, they write the character traits on gold coins, cut and paste onto peers' pot o' gold. Informative writing activity that reinforces using examples for fact-based essays. Includes: Easy to follow directions with optional age-based activities Pot o' Gold Coins handout Character Trait Sheet Follow-up writing activities Fun, engaging activity for elementary students who need introductions or reinforcement in working with character traits and fact-based writing.

Help students understand the difference between city and rural life with 10 activities. Includes: Easy to understand definitions of city and rural Matching (2 worksheets: symbols and words) Maps with city and rural activities to choose from Draw items found in a city and rural areas Letters for reflection (fill-in-the-blanks) Directions on each page Great for intro to geography or social studies unit, homework, or assessment. Meets CCSS.

Do your students have trouble determining when to use "I" or "Me"? This easy-to-follow PowerPoint includes: Simplified Rules for Using"I" and "Me" Easy to follow Examples Peer Workshopping Activity This to-the-point presentation is for individual, small, or whole group introduction and review.. Make learning to use "I' or "Me" easy!