Your 3rd grader comes home from school, and you want to spend some meaningful playtime together. But what activities for 3rd graders can you do with your child that will be both educational and fun?
We’ve put together 50 of our favorite activities that will help your child learn through play. Let the fun begin!
50 Educational Activities for 3rd Graders
1) Write a Story with Emojis
Challenge your 3rd grader to write a short story, interspersing emojis for words and feelings.
2) Create a Self-Portrait
Give your child crayons, markers, or colored pencils and some paper, and ask them to draw themselves.
3) Learn to Code
Try out Begin’s codeSpark learn-to-code app. After learning the ABCs of coding, your child can practice through play.
Once they have the hang of it, they’ll even get to make their own games.
4) Learn How to Make Ice Cream
Teach your child how to make their own ice cream with ziplock bags, ice, milk, flavoring, and salt.
5) Collect and Press Flowers and Leaves
Take a nature walk with your 3rd grader and collect flowers and leaves. Press them between the pages of a book (place the items between sheets of paper first) until they’re dry to make a seasonal keepsake.
6) Make a Comic Strip Version of a Favorite Book
Challenge your child to retell a story they love in comic book form.
7) Think Up a Riddle
Start by explaining what a riddle is and encourage your child to try to write their own.
8) Make a Map of the Room
Ask your child to draw a map of their room with all the furniture in the right places.
9) Write a Letter to a Character in a Book
Encourage your child to write a letter to a character in a favorite book.
10) Create a “How to” Instruction Guide
Is there something your child has recently learned how to do? Have them create a “how to” instruction guide to help others achieve the same.
11) Conduct a Survey
Teach your child how to conduct a survey and write the information down on a chart you create together.
12) Try Planning an Event
Involve your child in party planning—from picking food to decorations and invitations.
13) Create a Shop and Learn to Count Money
Play shop with your child and let them be the cashier to hone important math skills.
14) Make a Weather Chart for the Week or Month
Have your child write down the daily weather predictions, and then compare them to the actual weather.
15) Learn Yoga or Meditation
Teach your child some easy yoga poses or use a meditation app together to show that relaxing the mind and body is important at every age.
16) Try Making Soap
Another science-based hands-on activity your 3rd grader is going to love is soap-making. Pick a scent they’ll love to use at bathtime!
17) Make a Guide to a Local Playground or Park
Go to your child’s favorite park and encourage them to create a pamphlet showing all the features of the park along with a map.
18) Write a Biographical Timeline of a Historical Figure
Have your child research a historical figure and create a timeline detailing dates and key points in their personal history.
19) Write a Poem in Rhyming Couplets
Pick a topic—the sillier the better—and challenge your child to write a poem about it composed of rhyming couplets.
20) Try Back-To-Back Breathing
See if you can sync up your breathing as you sit back to back.
21) Learn to Use a Compass
Teach your child how to navigate directions by using a compass.
22) Make a Potion for Halloween
Your child will love brewing a potion so much, they won’t even notice it’s a science experiment in disguise.
23) Create an ABC Book
Test your child’s vocabulary by creating an ABC book on a theme of their choice.
24) Interview Family Members
Ask your child to devise a list of questions and conduct interviews with various family members.
25) Write a Haiku or Limerick
Teach your child the rules of the haiku and limerick and let them give it a try.
26) Create Boats
Challenge your child to make different boats using several materials and compare how they float.
27) Try the Egg Drop Challenge
Give your child an egg and packing materials, like newspaper, bubble wrap, boxes, and tape. Challenge them to protect the egg and then see if it can withstand a fall.
28) Play Detective
Make up a mystery for your child to solve. Encourage them to use logic to decipher the clues.
29) Create a Friendship Bracelet
Making a friendship bracelet requires hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills—and it’s a great way for your child to show they care about someone.
30) Invent a New Country and Design Its Flag
If your child were to put a new country on the map, where would it be and why? What would it be called? Encourage them to design their country’s flag and describe what life would be like there.
31) Create a Compost Jar
Have your child fill a glass jar with leaves, grass clippings, dirt, newspaper, fruit and vegetable scraps, and rainwater. Put a lid on the top with holes for oxygen, and then draw a line on the jar to indicate the level of the ingredients.
Set the compost in a sunny spot and wait as it turns into nutrient-rich soil. You can even draw a new line after one day, two days, etc. to watch the decomposition progress.
32) Make Your Own Board Game
Who doesn’t love board games? Help your child design their own for even more fun. The design and rules can be as simple or complex as they’d like.
For example, your child can draw a path made of squares on a piece of construction paper and have each player take turns rolling the dice to see how many squares they can move their game piece (which can be a button, paperclip, or any small object).
Whoever makes it to the end first wins!
33) Learn to Set a Table Correctly
Read about table setting together, and then ask your 3rd grader to set the table for lunch.
34) Create an Ad
Test your child’s creativity by asking them to pick a favorite toy at home to create an advertising campaign about.
35) Plant a Flower and Write a Plan to Care for It
Choose a new flower for the garden and research it together. Where should it be planted? How should it be cared for? Have your child make a calendar to care for their new flower.
36) Make a Reflection Painting
Take a look at a pond outside and notice how the surroundings reflect in the water. Encourage your child to paint what they see, capturing nature’s reflection.
37) Write Notes of Kindness and Leave Them Around the House
Encourage your child to write “thank you” notes and leave them around the house for others to find.
38) Create a Rube Goldberg Machine
Rube Goldberg is famous for making overly complicated machines that do simple tasks. Read about him and encourage your child to make their own such machine.
39) Practice Packing a Suitcase
Get out a suitcase and name a destination. Invite your child to pack what they think they need for a weekend away.
40) Write a No-Food-Waste Plan
Open the fridge and have your child make a chart of what’s expiring and when. Show them how to check the labels on each item to determine expiration dates. Then come up with recipes that will use any of these perishables (such as milk and eggs) so nothing goes to waste.
41) Create a Diorama of a Habitat
Pick an animal and research its habitat. Have your child try to replicate the habitat in an old shoe box with paper, colored pencils, markers, cotton balls, and natural materials, like grass, leaves, stones, and pine cones.
42) Make a Sculpture Out of Recycled Materials
Dip into the recycling bin and urge your child to make something new. Could a juice box be made into a wallet, a toilet paper roll into a bird feeder, or a water bottle into a flower? Be sure to clean any items before using.
43) Create a Homemade Wind Chime
Encourage your child to use natural and recycled materials to fashion a homemade wind chime.
44) Engage in Community Service
Sign up for a local community service project the whole family can participate in.
45) Learn to Use a Microscope
Experiment with a microscope by examining everything from wood to money to fabric to fingerprints.
46) Make a Water Glass Xylophone
Take out six water glasses to test if different volumes of water make the same or different sounds. Your child can use a straw to “play” the glasses, striking them on their side. But be gentle!
47) Write and Act Out a Play
Invite your child to write a short play, and then offer to play one of the parts under their direction.
48) Devise a New Superhero
Challenge your child to come up with a new superhero with special new powers. What would they be? What would their superhero do, and what would they look like?
49) Learn About Another Part of the World
Encourage your child’s Curiosity about the world by signing them up for Begin’s Little Passports: World Adventures subscription kits. Your child can investigate a new country each month and complete hands-on activities that will bring learning to life.
50) Play a Game of Charades
A game of charades is an engaging way to challenge your child’s imagination.
Learn Through Play with Begin
With so many activities for 3rd graders to choose from, your child will always be learning in fun, new ways.
Little Passports by Begin’s World Adventures, Kitchen Adventures, and Science Expeditions monthly activity kits are perfect for hands-on fun, while our codeSpark app is just right for building computer literacy as they grow.
Trust Begin’s engaging educational activities to support your child at every stage of their learning journey!
