Third Grade Reading Exercises

Reading Skills in Third Grade

By the time your child is in third grade, he or she may be improving vocabulary and fluency by reading in groups. He or she can find information using indexes, tables of contents and glossaries, as well as looking up words in the dictionary. In addition to reading chapter books and nonfiction, your third grader may be enjoying plays, poetry, myths, folklore, fables and legends. He or she may identify main themes and supporting details, and explain character development. You can help boost reading skills by doing exercises at home.

What Reading Exercises Can my Third Grader Do at Home?

Depicting a Moment from the Story

Ask your child to synthesize the content of a short story or chapter book by creating a collage that represents a moment in the story. She should pick an important part of the story to represent. Ask her to cut words and images out of magazines and other print materials that describe that part of the story and glue them on a sheet of construction paper. This exercise will force her to choose carefully from all the scenes in a story and focus on what's most important.

Analyzing Advertisements

This critical thinking exercise requires catalogs and advertisements that you receive by mail. Have your son read over the descriptions of products or services. Ask him how they are similar and different. You can even have him make a list of commonly used words or phrases. Help him find textual clues that indicate who the target audience is for each advertisement.

Identifying Similes

A simile compares two different things using 'like' or 'as.' For this exercise, you can use a poem such as Robert Burns' 'A Red, Red Rose' or Langston Hughes' 'A Dream Deferred.' Ask your daughter to explain to you what a simile is. Give her a copy of your chosen poem to read, and challenge her to find and highlight all of the similes in the poem. Afterwards, ask her to come up with her own similes and help her turn her similes into a poem.

Playing the Book Critic

With your son, examine reviews of third grade books in print publications or online. Have him list any details in the reviews that he especially likes. Then, ask him to create his own review of a book he recently read. Encourage him to imitate elements of the published reviews or add his own style if he wishes.