My Favorite Resources for Third Grade Teachers

Congratulations third grade teacher! Teaching third grade is such a fun experience. The kids are still excited about school and easily impressed by things like crayons. Yet, they can be quite independent, especially by mid year.

Now that you know you will be teaching third grade, you are probably starting to wonder what resources you might want to have in your classroom.

I have compiled a list of my very favorite resources for third grade. I hope it helps!

Books

I’m starting with my book recommendations because I think that books are the most important part of ANY classroom! A good classroom library is a must.

It doesn’t have to cost a fortune though. You can get books from garage sales, used book stores, and even from your friends. I highly recommend putting a post on your personal Facebook page asking if any of your friends have books that their children have outgrown. It’s a great way to grow your library.

Click HERE to read more about organizing your classroom library.

Chapter Books

Here are some of my favorites (most are part of a series):

• Wimpy Kid
• Wayside School
• Humphrey
• Lemonade War
• Ever After
• The One and Only Ivan
• Who Was/Is

Picture Books

I use these during read aloud or as mentor texts during writing.

• Wordy Birdy
• Pig the Pug
• After the Fall
• Thank You, Mr. Falker
• Eraser

Math Resources for Third Grade

Math Centers

Using math centers and small groups completely changed the way that I taught math. I would NEVER go back to completely teaching in whole group! Math centers and small group instruction make it much easier to differentiate my instruction. Every student doesn’t need the same thing, so why waste time teaching everyone exactly the same way? Plus, math centers are engaging!

If you are looking for more info on how to start and run successful math centers, check out THIS video series that I created.

I highly recommend THESE math centers. They are consistent. The centers will look very similar all year and this means that you don’t have to spend nearly as much time teaching the expectations and directions. Also, you can use the centers in any order that you choose because they aren’t specific to any month or holiday. I love this because we don’t all have the same pacing guide!

Click HERE to read more about these centers.

Interactive Notebooks

Interactive Notebooks are a FUN way to teach and practice math! They are so much better than traditional note-taking, because instead of just copying notes from the teacher, students are interacting with the material, which leads to a deeper understanding.

My Interactive Notebooks involve inserting and moving around flaps, foldables, wheels, charts, and more and students love all of the different visuals. But don’t worry, I designed these for notebooks for busy teachers like you. So the cuts are super-simple, and there’s no unnecessary coloring. Your kids can quickly cut, glue, and go!

I have a total of 10 interactive notebooks to cover all the math skills your third grade students need.

Click HERE to read more about the Math Interactive Notebooks.

Math Curriculum

My third grade math curriculum is your one-stop-shop for math lessons that are fun, engaging, and easy to prep. These comprehensive units have everything you need to teach all of the third-grade standards. The full curriculum includes ten units:

• Back to School
• Place Value
• Addition & Subtraction
• Multiplication  
• Division
• Geometry
• Fractions
• Measurements
• Data
• Review & Test Prep

Each ready to teach unit comes with instructional PowerPoints for each mini-lesson, daily student activities that are effective and engaging, key vocabulary, task cards, a math game, anchor charts, problems sets and homework, complete lesson plans, helpful resources like hundreds charts and number lines, and more! There’s no reason to look anywhere else.

My math curriculum works perfectly with my math centers.

Click HERE to see the third grade math curriculum.

Writing Resources for Third Grade

Teaching writing can be one of the toughest subjects. Many teachers don’t teach it at all, or just brush over the standards by giving their students a journal prompt during reading centers. I totally get it! Without great resources and training, I had no idea how to teach writing and it frustrated me.

Writing Professional Development Course

First, if you are really looking to transform your writing instruction, I highly recommend taking my online writing professional development course. This course was specifically created for grades 2-5 teachers and it includes 27 different videos. When you complete the videos, you will feel so much better about teaching writing!

You’ll learn how to:

• Keep your lessons and preparation simple: Using the workshop model will save you time because you’ll have a simple routine with minimal prep.
• Increase your students’ standardized test scores: You’ll be training your students to work independently—so they’ll be able to perform higher on standardized writing assessments.
• Maximize your limited class time: You’ll learn how to implement short mini-lessons so you can spend less time lecturing and presenting to the entire class.
• Skyrocket your confidence as a writing teacher: Once you start using a modern writing workshop, you’ll see student growth—fast.

Taking the Masterclass is easy. The course is entirely online. You take it where you want, when you want. And it is self-paced–you can watch it in a weekend or a week or take your time going through the modules. You get lifetime access to the course, so you return to the lessons over and over again.

Throughout the course, you’ll find ongoing support in a private Facebook group where you can ask questions, find inspiration, and share ideas. Plus, you will get to print a professional development certificate. Yippee!!

​​Registration for the Not So Wimpy Writing Masterclass is currently closed. Be sure to sign up for the Waitlist so you will be the first to know when we open it again. Sign up now so you don’t miss out!

Free Guide to Writing Lessons

Lots of teachers have told me that they just don’t know what lessons they should teach during writing workshop. I put together THIS free guide to make it easier for you to decide what lessons to include when you are planning your mini lessons. Enjoy!

Year-Long Units

Now that you know what to teach, you are ready to create your writing lesson plans. But that takes time. A lot of time. So I decided to create them for you!

My writing units include lesson plans, mentor text passages, anchor charts, student printables and task cards for the entire year. These resources for third grade are so easy to use that you can leave them for a substitute if you need to!

Click HERE to learn more about my third grade writing units.

Grammar Resources for Third Grade

Grammar is hard! There are so many rules that our students have to memorize and this can make the lessons rather boring.

Grammar Curriculum

I  noticed that most curriculum did not include enough engaging materials and did not break down the grammar skills into small enough pieces. Therefore, I decided to create my own grammar curriculum!

My grammar units include an activity for every day of the week.

I broke down the language standards into very small pieces that will make it easier for your students to learn all of the skills.

Click HERE to learn more about my grammar units.

Free Grammar Posters

It can be handy to have a resource that students can reference as they learn new skills during the year. You can add a poster to your display each week as you teach the new skills.

Click HERE to grab this freebie!

Reading

Some teachers have a reading curriculum that they love. Many do not. I have created some resources to help you to teach and practice reading skills and standards. I think that the most important aspect of any reading resource is whether or not it helps to increase a student’s love for reading.

Reading Units and Centers

These reading units can be used as a supplement to a reading curriculum or they can be used in place of curriculum.

Each unit was designed to be used over a two week time frame. They each include:

• a powerpoint to introduce the skill or strategy
• two interactive notebook activities
• five centers
• three passages with questions that can be used during reading groups or as assessments

Click HERE to read more about these reading units.

Book Clubs

I also love using book clubs. I used book clubs with all of my reading groups. It really helped to increase their love for reading and helped them to choose new books for their independent reading time.

If you want to learn more about how I ran my book clubs, you can watch THIS video. These booc club resources for third grade an be used with any book.

Click HERE to read more about my book club resource.

Vocabulary

Teaching vocabulary is a must! It will improve your students’ reading comprehension, writing word choice, and standardized testing scores. That’s big!

I found that adding ten minutes of vocabulary to my daily instruction made a huge difference. I love having a routine!

• Monday: introduce word definitions and sentences
• Tuesday: antonyms and synonyms
• Wednesday: roots, prefixes and suffixes
• Thursday: draw pictures to represent the words
• Friday: play a review game and take an assessment.

I put together a resource that includes everything that you need to teach, practice and assess vocabulary words. I carefully researched and chose tier 2 words that show up often in grade level text and on standardized tests.

Click HERE to read more about my vocabulary resource.

Spelling

Our third grade spelling curriculum is a unique concept-based approach to teaching spelling. Each week focuses on spelling rules or patterns to help students understand why words are spelled the way they are. The curriculum is flexible–teach it in as few as 2 days per week (or as many as 5), easy to differentiate (4 different spelling lists each week), and simple to use.

Your students won’t just be memorizing random lists of words, they’ll actually be learning how to spell.

Click HERE to read more about the spelling program.

Facebook Group

Teaching is tough! Don’t do this alone!

I have a Facebook group for third grade teachers. It is the perfect place to ask for suggestions or tips when you are having a tough day.

Click HERE to join the group.

I have shared so many great resources for third grade, but don’t get overwhelmed! Keep in mind that the most important thing that you need in your third grade classroom is a positive relationship with your students. You can do that without centers or anchor charts or reading menus. I believe in you!

Have a Not So Wimpy day,