Language Arts Secular Homeschool Curriculum Skills List | Third Grade

Language arts activities have a social studies or science theme and incorporate reading, handwriting, and English skills. The activities provided during the year continue to drill phonics and blend these skills with sight word recognition to promote fluency and comprehension in reading and writing. The questions for discussion of literature stimulate higher-level thinking skills and incorporate new vocabulary words that become part of your child’s usable vocabulary. Practice worksheets to reinforce these concepts are included within the lessons.

Reading

• Use word recognition skills and strategies to read and comprehend text.
• Recognize sight words.
• Read orally with fluency and expression.
• Look at an illustration and tell a story about the illustration, using a variety of descriptive words.
• Identify and use words that rhyme, start, or end with the same sound.
• Develop the ability to recognize and describe the main idea, setting, plot, supporting details, characters, conflict, and theme in a story.
• Demonstrate evidence of literal and inferential comprehension.
• Understand foreshadowing and symbolism.
• Use context as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.
• Sort and define words by category.
• Understand and recognize a synonym and antonym.
• Understand and recognize a homophone and homonym.
• Understand story sequence.
• List events in sequential order.
• Develop the ability to make inferences and draw conclusions.
• Identify cause and effect relationships.
• Explain a cause and its effects on events and relationships.
• Expand comprehension by analyzing, interpreting, and synthesizing information in text.
• Read to learn new information, to perform a task, or to enjoy a story.
• Understand literature written in a variety of genres.
• Identify differences between fiction and non-fiction.
• Determine fact and opinion.
• Identify true and false statements.

Spelling

• Apply spelling and phonics concepts through oral and written practice.
• Learn basic spelling rules.
• Recognize silent letters in words.
• Understand and spell abbreviations and contractions.
• Add a suffix to a word.
• Add a prefix to a word.
• Decode and spell words by breaking them into syllables.
• Understand how to read and write compound words.
• Write words in alphabetical order based on the first three letters.
• Recognize and spell plural words.

Writing and Grammar

• Write upper and lower case cursive letters, using proper spacing between letters.
• Understand that proper nouns begin with a capital letter.
• Use pronouns correctly.
• Use conjunctions correctly.
• Identify and write compound words.
• Identify nouns and verbs; use correct subject-verb agreement.
• Identify main verbs and helping verbs.
• Understand how to write and use possessive nouns.
• Identify the adjective that describes the noun.
• Compare nouns using comparative and superlative adjectives.
• Identify and use past, present, and future verb tenses properly.
• Identify a prepositional phrase, a preposition, and the object of a preposition.
• Learn how to gather information to use as a writing tool for research and inquiry.
• Use reference materials.
• Write an outline using correct format.
• Understand that a sentence begins with a capital letter and ends with a punctuation mark.
• Identify types of sentences: statement, question, exclamation, command.
• Recognize the difference between phrases and sentences.
• Write dictated words and sentences.
• Write a paragraph or story about a designated topic.
• Fill in missing words in sentences.
• Correctly use vocabulary in context.
• Use proper punctuation in writing.
• Use a graphic organizer to organize main ideas and supporting details.
• Understand and use a writing process.
• Write a title page and a simple bibliography.
• Write clearly and effectively.
• Write in a variety of forms for different audiences and purposes.
  • journal
  • fiction
  • non-fiction
  • a persuasive speech and letter
  • an acrostic
  • a cinquain
  • a limerick
  • a haiku
  • a catalog poem
  • a diamond poem
  • a free verse poem
  • an invitation
  • a thank you letter
  • an autobiographical story
  • a riddle
  • a comic strip
  • a children’s story
  • an analogy
  • research report
• Write a couplet, a triplet, and a quatrain ending in rhyming words.
• Describe people, places, things, and events with relevant details.
• Recognize alliteration, personification, onomatopoeia, similes, and metaphors.
• Analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of written work.
• Learn about famous authors and their style of writing.
• Write a poem in a poet’s style.
• Address an envelope using proper format.

Communication

• Use listening and observation skills and strategies to gain understanding.
• Use communication skills and strategies to interact and work effectively with others.
• Write statements or questions for a story, card, or interview.
• Demonstrate the ability to express an opinion, or present ideas in a variety of situations.
• Use transitional words and phrases to connect ideas.
• Use effective vocabulary and logical organization to relate or summarize ideas.
• Describe the physical and personality traits of a story character
• Understand nonverbal communication.
• Learn and use basic sign language.
• Associate a vocabulary word with its definition.
• Participate in dramatic play.
• Recite and memorize poems.
• Follow a set of multi-step directions.
• Describe the location of one object relative to another object using prepositional words.
• Understand the meaning of an idiom.
• Complete word analogies.
• Demonstrate the ability to retell a story.
• Use descriptive words to narrate a story.
• Read a persuasive speech.
• Learn about different means of communication.
• Compare and contrast means of communication.
• Decipher Morse code.
• View and evaluate a television news show.
• Write and deliver a news report.