3rd Grade Curriculum Choices

 It's time again to start prepping for the start of a new school year! Here is our current plan for the 2026-2027 year, although it can always change along the way. Technically it is his 3rd grade year, but we go with his level.

If you're a video type person, I also made a video with my choices.

Math:

• Beast Academy - Last year we did Beast Academy Level 3B, 3C, 3D and 4A. This year we will continue with Beast Academy Level 4. We also have the Puzzles 2 & 3 books as a summer supplement.

• Math Books - He also reads a math "story" every week. This might be a Mathstart book, a Sir Cumference book, a Life of Fred book (our library has most of them), or another math picture book we have. 
• Those pictured:
• Life the Flap Fractions and Decimals
• The School of Numbers
• Amazing Visual Math
• How to be a Math Genius
• Can you Count to a Googol

• Math Games - We play tons of board games as a family and many have hidden math components, but we have some dedicated "math" games. 
• Prime Climb
• ADSUMUDI
• Mobi

Language Arts:

• Hearth & Story -  Probably our biggest curriculum change will be switching to Hearth & Story complete 3rd grade for all the ELA subjects except spelling. This will encompass literature studies, writing, poetry, grammar, breakfast serial (a type of lit study) and brain food (media literacy, philosophy, logic, etc.). It was a lot of printing, but I really like the way it was laid out. It includes a lot of things I wouldn't think to do myself, so I am really excited to dive in.
• Read aloud - I will read his lit study books aloud to him as part of Hearth & Story. It won't take all year, though, so I have some others lined up.

• Spelling - We have completed All About Spelling through level 5, so I kind of feel like he's good on regular "spelling" curriculum. Hearth & Story also has a spelling component, that we will be skipping. This year he will complete Word Roots Beginnings instead. It is a look at the meaning and spelling of roots, prefixes and suffixes of words. I think it will be a better way to prepare him to decode unfamiliar words and be successful on standardized tests in the future.

Logic

• Building Thinking Skills Level 2 - We've done a ton of logic girds in the past, so I think it is time to do a bigger variety. Technically this level says grades 4-6, but after looking through the sample pages, it seemed like a better fit. Some might be a stretch, but I'd rather help him work through them than waste time on problems that are too easy. We'll probably use this book over a couple of years.
• Word Explorer Level 1 - Honestly, we're mostly doing this because we came across it when I was looking for logic materials and my son loved the sample pages and asked for it. My plan is to have him do one a week.
• Crypto Mind Benders Famous Quotations - I already had this from when my oldest was in elementary and I think my 3rd grader will like them. I'll throw one page a week in as long as he's still enjoying it.

• Solo Logic Games - we have a bunch of these. I want to make an effort to have him play one at least once a week. 
• Those pictured:
• Laser Maze
• Marble Circuit
• Kanoodle Gravity
• IQ Flow
• Noodlers
• Super Slide
• Super Blocks
• Smart Sudoku

Science

• We have loved Beast Academy for math and now they have a science curriculum, so we are going to try that for 3rd grade, starting with Beast Academy Science 3A. As a former secondary science teacher, I love that it is based on the national standards. We will also supplement with books from our home library. It does seem like a lot to do in a week, so we might or might not do all the supplemental activities.

History & Social Studies

• Last year we used Curiosity Chronicles Snapshots of Medieval History and really liked the format. This year we will do Curiosity Chronicles: Snapshots of Modern History Part 1. I will probably pull our books or books from the library to go with relevant chapters are we reach them.

• To hit the social studies standards we will be using units from Tony the Tourist, we're doing most, but not all of 3rd grade.

Others

• Social Emotional - I got a Social Skills Activities workbook that I'm hoping to go through with both little kids. We will probably alternate with Heart and Mind activities, which is supposed to teach mindfulness, friendship and other executive function type skills. 
• Art- We will do 3rd grade art activities from a variety of internet sources (Deep Space Sparkle is great) as well as some projects in his history curriculum. My goal is just to expose him to various media and have him explore different techniques.
• Typing - we will use Typing Club, which is a free website for learning typing.