improve writing grade 3

6 ways to help your 3rd grader with writing

by: Jessica Kelmon | Updated: June 12, 2023

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When it comes to helping your child with writing, the secret is to keep it fun! Writing is about ideas, expression, and communication. Here are six easy ways to keep the ideas and words flowing — with or without a pencil and paper.

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Looking at Writing: Third Grade

On this page:, featured video, classroom strategies, graphic organizers and other downloadables, informal assessment, learn more about writing in third grade.

During third grade, children are really flexing their “idea” muscles and learning to express those ideas in more sophisticated ways. Sentences are getting longer and more complex. Kids are learning to use a dictionary to correct their own spelling. Grammar improves; for example, you’ll see appropriate punctuation, contractions, and correct subject-verb agreement. 

Third graders can write an essay with a simple thesis statement, examples and supporting details, and a thoughtful concluding sentence. They are building skills in the writing process — research, planning, organizing, revising , and editing (with help from teachers and peers).

Select the writing sample links at left to view real examples of third grade writing at different skill levels.

Video developed by Great Schools (opens in a new window) and used with permission. 

What does 3rd grade writing look like?

Can your 3rd grader write an informational essay?

Can your 3rd grader do research for an essay?

Growing Writers

Join third grade teacher Shana Sterkin to see how she incorporates purposeful writing into her classroom every day, and strives to create a joyful, confident community of writers. Watch Growing Writers

Classroom Strategy

• Paragraph Hamburger

Semantic Gradients

Sentence Combining

Transition Words

Writing Conferences

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Teaching Elementary School Students to Be Effective Writers

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Third Grade | Writing Skills

How is my child performing in writing.

Your child’s teacher should be able to provide samples of student work and describe if they are meeting the goals for writing. If you are worried that your child’s writing is not developing, schedule an appointment to meet with the teacher immediately to tell them your concerns.

3rd Grade Writing Goals

While all children develop at different rates, these are goals to help you understand how writing should be progressing during the school year.

• Third graders are expected to write throughout the day at school. For each subject they will be responding to questions, taking notes, writing in a journal, or composing a story.
• Children can understand written instructions and follow them without the help of an adult.
• Children write in complete sentences, adding descriptive words and more complex ideas. Instead of a few sentences, their stories begin to have paragraphs and pages of writing.
• Children show an increased ability to spell correctly, and they’re ready to learn cursive writing.
• Children begin to look over or “revise” what they just wrote – they correct spelling, add details, dialogue and punctuation, and make their writing sound better.
• Children begin to explore their opinions in writing. They learn that they can disagree or feel strongly and explain their reasons.
• Third graders use graphic organizers and outlines to help organize their writing and ideas.
• Children will practice the three kinds of writing: opinion writing, informative writing (stories that are true with facts, recipes or explaining how to do something) and story writing (called “narrative writing”).
• They go through the writing process, meaning they think about what they want to write, write down their first ideas, look back over their work to fix mistakes and then add details and pictures. At the end they read it to a friend, the teacher, family member or the entire class.
• They are motivated to do “research” by looking in books, reading websites for kids, and writing answers to their questions, such as “Who Was Jackie Robinson?” They can compile facts and write down what they learn in their own words.

Understanding What We Read – The Power of Note-Taking in 3rd Grade

Can sticky notes help your 3rd grader better understand a story, your 3rd grader, the researcher: help your child craft their informational writing, show your 3rd grader how to write an excellent paragraph, how your child can master any difficult vocabulary word using a semantic map, how using a graphic organizer helps a child better understand a story.

How can I help my child improve their writing?

Frequently asked questions about 3rd grade writing.

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What To Expect From Your Third Grader in Writing

Writing Content Skills in 3rd Grade

Our students should have a broad scope of writing skills to be successful in any situation. For example, third-graders should be able to write after going through the proper steps and on command. This means third-graders prewrite, write a draft, confer with their peers and the teacher, edit their work, revise as needed, and publish their final piece.

Students should be able to move through the different steps independently, although they may struggle somewhat with editing and revising. The teacher/parent should provide scaffolding during conferences focusing less on correcting mechanics and spelling and more on content and organization.

For example, when I work on writing with students, I focus on things like paragraph breaks, writing for the audience, making sure the text flows well and clarifying anything that might not be clear to readers. This process usually takes several days or maybe even a week.

Writing on Demand

However, writing on demand is different than other types of writing. This type of writing is usually timed and very specific. It might be a response to a text, personal experience, or a particular question or set of questions. For example, students might read two stories and compare the texts in various ways.

By third Grade, students should be able to write a paragraph. This includes being comfortable with end marks and having a solid subject/predicate sentence structure. They should also slowly become more familiar with commas, apostrophes, and quotation marks. On top of all this grammatical knowledge, they should be using conventional spelling or at least have an understanding that the word they’ve written might not be spelled correctly.

For example, while editing their writing and other students’ work, they should be able to identify words that may not be spelled correctly. It’s also important for third graders to understand when to use uppercase letters. Every sentence must start with a capital letter and proper nouns, days of the week, and months of the year. By the end of third Grade, students should know how to capitalize holiday titles, etc.

Different Types of Writing

Third graders should be familiar with different types of writing, such as letters, persuasive essays, how-to writing, writing to inform, narrative or story writing, and poetry.

They should also be able to respond to the texts they read in many ways, such as by journaling about personal or intertextual connections, summarizing the text, or simply describing their favorite part of the essential fact.

Knowing The Audience

By third Grade, students should have a firm grasp on writing clearly and for their audience. They can do this by using more varied sentence structures and language.

Additionally, they should be adding detail to their narratives through the use of adjectives and descriptive sentences.

Proofreading and Correcting Mistakes

Students should be able to check over their work to make sure it makes sense. They can use graphic organizers and rubrics to help organize their thoughts. Finally, self-reflection through a rubric will allow them to assess their understanding of the material.

The Primary Focus on Third Grade Writing

There are many goals for writing instruction in third Grade. However, we will focus on just a few. First, teachers/parents should model writing frequently so students can see how it is done. Second, students should have time to write on their own. Third, there should be a balance between tasks that require students to write immediately and those that allow them to use the full writing process.

Modeling Writing

There are many different ways to model writing. Shared writing experiences and mini-lessons are two great ways to do this. In a shared writing experience, the teacher and students write together about a shared experience. This can happen any time, for example, after a field trip or during the morning message. Mini-lessons can happen during a shared writing experience, at the beginning of writing time, in small flexible groups, or during individual student conferences.

Mini-lessons are 10- to 15-minute lessons that teach skills related to writing. For example, model the steps in the writing process over several days. Start with a mini-lesson on determining what to write about, think aloud about different ideas, such as my dog, surfing, making cookies, autumn, and reading. Then have the student write these ideas down so he can refer back to them later and always have a topic at hand.

There are many reasons why students should write across the school day. They can describe their findings during science class, write a research report during social studies, or respond to a chapter they’re reading in a book.

Focus on Both Process Writing and On-Demand Writing

We also want to provide a balance between process writing and on-demand writing. Process writing (which often happens during a time block called Writers’ Workshop) should happen as often as possible for at least 30 minutes each day. On-demand writing assignments should be given every day.

There are many ways that you can vary on-demand writing and allow student choice. Some examples include buddy journals, writing-center tasks, and responses to literature. None of these types of writing need to happen at a specific time. Students can complete writing tasks while the teacher is helping other students or you are putting another load of laundry in the washer!

Third graders should be able to construct complete thoughts, use paragraph structure, and employ correct punctuation and capitalization by the end of the school year. They should be able to write for a particular audience while receiving assistance, utilize details and vivid language to entice the reader, and also write for a general audience with some scaffolding and help.

To help third-grade students achieve the goals outlined in the article, it is crucial for teachers and parents to model writing frequently. Additionally, students need time to write on their own, balancing tasks that require them to write immediately and those that allow them to use the entire writing process. Finally, various writing opportunities should be provided across the school day. This will give students the practice they need to improve their writing skills.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. I hope you’ve picked up some information and guidance for your third grader and are ready to have a great school year!

Don’t hesitate to reach out to me at: [email protected]

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How To Improve Writing Skills For Kids: 14 Easy Tips

Writing — it’s an important form of communication and a key part of education. But in today’s technology-driven world, kids aren’t given many opportunities to practise and improve their ability to write. This leaves many parents wondering how to improve their child’s writing skills.

It takes time to develop strong writing skills, and it can be a tough task to accomplish. Thankfully, there are many things that parents can do at home to help improve children’s writing skills.

From fun activities to daily reading and writing sessions, these tips on how to improve kids’ writing skills will help your child build his or her skills in no time.

Improve your child’s communication skills with these simple and fun kids’ writing activities.

14 activities to improve kids’ writing skills.

Regular reading is a stepping stone to better writing and helps kids’ strengthen their writing skills. It helps expand children’s vocabulary and shows them different ways of using words. This also makes it easier for them to use these words in their own writing.

Make it Fun!

Create writing worksheets, try different materials, write letters.

Today, writing letters is a bit of a lost art. Encourage your child to write letters to friends or family members. Distant family members will especially love receiving handwritten letters and it’s a great way to work on improving writing skills for kids.

Encourage Journalling

Create a writing space, invest time, connect their interests, create story prompts.

A fun way to improve kids’ creative writing skills is to have them write short stories.

Use Technology to Your Advantage

Make it part of your daily routine, praise their work, improving writing skills can be fun.

Writing is an important practical life skill. While developing great writing skills requires lots of time and patience, you can help your child with these simple writing exercises for kids.

Lots of reading, frequent writing time in a special writing area, and incorporating fun writing activities and games will all go a long way to giving writing skills a boost.

Need Extra Help?

If your child needs extra help improving his or her writing skills, Oxford Learning can help. Our English tutoring program helps develop kids’ writing and comprehension skills, from word recognition to paragraph writing. Contact us today !

Related Resources

5 Reasons Writing By Hand Is Good For The Brain Understanding Literacy & Your Child 5 Ways To Help Kids Learn At Home

Should Textbooks Be Replaced By Notebook Computers?

Study break tips: how to take a study break that works, related writing resources.

Is Handwriting a Lost Art?

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Your step-by-step guide to writing an academic essay (& review checklist).

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180 Days of Writing for Third Grade - An Easy-to-Use Third Grade Writing Workbook to Practice and Improve Writing Skills (180 Days of Practice) 1st Edition

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The '180 Days of Writing' workbook offers purposeful, daily practice that will engage 3rd-grade students with fun writing assignments, activities and prompts for the entire school year. Build a daily routine of learning with this workbook and get the fun lessons and encouragement to stick with it - whether it's in school or at home.

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Improve writing skills for kids

Writing is an activity with many moving parts. A child must bring together vocabulary , grammar and mental processing, and then rely on the physical aspect of handwriting or typing out the words.

That’s why it requires ample practice and extensive exposure to language for kids to develop strong writing skills.

And because young learners can’t just sit down and write the perfect draft, they need to learn the art of revision too.

How important are writing skills?

Writing is intricately linked to critical thinking. It also has implications for performance across all areas of the school curriculum.

Writing is how a child shows what he or she knows and what has been learned.

Students need to be good writers in order to do well on exams, complete homework assignments and eventually compose longer essays and reports. 

7 Ways to help kids develop their writing skills

For students to improve their English writing skills, they need to practice as often as possible, learn how to type so they can write quickly on a computer, and be introduced to strategies that will help them develop their skills.

• Encourage reading. Good writers tend to be avid readers and there is a reason for this. The more a child reads, the more they will be exposed to new vocabulary in context and the more words they will learn. Once a word is part of their receptive vocabulary, it is a lot easier for it to make the transition into productive use (to the delight of parents and teachers who want children to “flex their vocabulary muscles” in writing). Reading also exposes kids to different ways of using words and a variety of sentence structures that they can use in their own writing.  
• Help them get started. A blank page can be intimidating, even for the seasoned author. Children may do fine once they get started but you often need to help them get the first few words or sentences down. Ask them a thought provoking question, make a list or mind-map of ideas that relate to the topic they are writing about or work with them to organize an outline they can turn into a draft. Taking away the stigma of writing the perfect sentence is also key. Once they have some text to work with, it can always be re-shaped and revised. The trick is to encourage free writing from the start, in order to record whatever thoughts come to mind. They can always worry about revisions later.  
• Teach working in drafts. Brainstorming, putting ideas down on paper, ensuring the language and thoughts flow and revising for typos and errors are all different steps in the process of writing. Children need to understand that a perfect sentence doesn’t just come out of nowhere, it develops through a back and forth process as the writer writes, reviews and revises his or her text. This is one reason it’s helpful for kids to write on a computer. It saves erasing and allows children to make multiple attempts at getting their thoughts down, until they find the phrasing they want. Writing on the computer also make it more efficient to reorganize longer pieces of writing, to help information flow better.  
• Ask parents to help outside of school. Kids learn to write through example . Completing an initial draft alone is sometimes important, particularly if the task requires sharing personal thoughts and experiences, but it also helps to have someone else there to review it. Parents can make a huge difference in how their children’s writing skills improve by agreeing to read early drafts. Use the child’s words to suggest optimized phrasing and/or help them pinpoint what they are trying to say through conversation. This makes it easier for the ideas to be written down.  
• Allow the use of spell and grammar checks. It’s easy to dismiss technology-use as being lazy, but spelling and grammar feedback can actually be extremely helpful for a child who is learning how to write or trying to improve. This is because sometimes there are multiple suggested corrections that force a child not only to notice the awkward phrasing or misspelled word, but to spend some extra cognitive energy thinking about how to correct it. Computers also provide an opportunity to correct errors without the embarrassment or stigma of multiple eraser marks on a hand-written copy.   
• Incentivize free writing at home and school. When children learn to write well they are not just cultivating academic skills, they’re also opening up a new avenue for self-expression. Creative tasks foster positive associations with writing, so children see it not just as an activity for learning and reporting information at school, but a way of getting their thoughts across. It doesn’t matter who reads what they are writing or even what it is about, it’s just a good idea if it becomes a regular activity. Parents might suggest keeping a personal diary with a journal entry a day resulting in a special treat at the end of the week. It’s also important for teachers to encourage any and every opportunity for writing , as the more kids write, the more they will improve and hone their skills.  
• Suggest copying activities. Copying or memorizing favorite poems, quotes or any other pieces of written language can help children focus their attention on form, use and meaning and incorporate new structures into productive use. While no parents or teachers would advocate plagiarism, borrowing sentence structures for your own ideas is how children learn to write and improve their writing. They will lift phrasing from everything they read and you can help encourage the process by providing them with specific materials to work with.

Learning difficulties that affect writing

While no two children with dyslexia will have exactly the same symptoms, the dyslexic child often struggles to cultivate reading and writing skills. If they have a hard time learning to read, vocabulary will be effected, which makes writing more difficult. Spelling can also cause interference when it comes to getting ideas on paper. This is another reason why using spell-checkers is important. Try out different teaching strategies as it’s crucial to help these kids before they fall behind in early literacy skills development.

For some children and adults, the act of handwriting is actually physically painful or can cause mental strain. Everything from forming the letters to deciding on the spacing between words requires so much cognitive energy that very little is left over for thinking about the ideas, flow, spelling and/or punctuation in an assignment. It’s almost always advised that kids who have dysgraphia learn to write on a computer using touch-typing. Learn more about helping kids who experience writing difficulties because of dysgraphia . 

Similar to the handwriting difficulties experienced by children with dysgraphia, dyspraxia has to do with difficulties with fine motor skills. This can make holding a pen or pencil difficult. It also affects planning and organization skills, something that’s essential for children who are learning how to write. Brainstorming ideas in charts and filling out outlines can help these kids. Read more about  teaching children with dyspraxia .

Slow processing speed

Kids with slow processing speed will need longer to process writing prompts and may have a particularly hard time getting started on a draft. Parents and teachers can help by going over the task instructions several times, giving children an opportunity to talk about the topic in order to generate ideas, and then allowing them as much time as they need to write. Neatness and spelling may not always be a high priority for these kids as the assignment itself is so mentally taxing they will be exhausted when it comes time to revise. That’s why the shorter the task, the better, to help children with slow processing focus on quality in their writing.

These children may struggle to focus attention on the prompt or how the idea they are working on relates to the larger text. It can be helpful to give them an opportunity to get up from their seat from time to time and move around the room or stretch. Many kids are successful writing in their heads, that is working out their thoughts before sitting down to record them.

Computers and touch-typing

Kids can start learning how to type at the age of 6 or 7, when their hands fit comfortably on a keyboard. Taking a touch-typing course is a must for the child who is learning to write on a computer. That’s because the process of translating ideas into words and sentences is much smoother without the disruption of visually searching for letters.

Touch-typing speeds up writing, allowing a child to write at the same pace as he or she is thinking. It can be a great way to encourage kids to do more writing outside of school, as it takes less time to write a brief email to a relative or compose a comment on social media.

It helps children who struggle with learning difficulties too. They can avoid handwriting tasks and improve their spelling skills, as muscle memory in the hands automatizes the writing of high frequency words.

Finding the right touch-typing course is key. Touch-type Read and Spell takes a multi-sensory and modular approach that allows each child to work through the course at a pace that is right for him or her.

Hearing the words, seeing them on a screen and then learning to write them also improves sound-letter mapping and can help with reading skills.

Do you have any tips to add? Join the discussion in the comments!

We used the Touch-type Read and Spell course to teach my ten-year-old son typing, in order to help him with his writing. He really liked books but was never that keen on the reading bit. He was also quite slow to write by hand. His amazing ideas weren’t making it onto the paper and his teachers couldn’t always see how intelligent and creative he was. TTRS has helped my son show his strengths!

Amy, Parent of a child with dyslexia

For teachers

TTRS is a program designed to support educators in teaching students touch-typing, with additional emphasis on reading and spelling.

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Testimonials and reviews

Maria, Adult learner

Maria used to type with two-fingers, slowly and often inaccurately. Now she types faster, with fewer errors, more competently and professionally. This has boosted her confidence in the workplace tremendously. She now recognises individual sounds in words much better, due to the auditory aspect of the multi-sensory approach in TTRS. Her vocabulary has noticeably improved and she has found she can explain things and express herself more clearly in English after completing the course.

Read more of Maria’s story

Bolton College, Adult Education Program

At Bolton College we offer the TTRS course to self-study adult learners who have returned to education to improve their spelling, increase their familiarity with technology, and use word processors. We find that for many adult learners in our program, the conventional ‘look-cover-spell-check’ approach they were taught at school had a detrimental effect on their learning. In contrast, Touch-type Read and Spell provides a rewarding and positive experience for them when it comes to spelling.

Read more of Bolton College’s story

TTRS has a solution for you

An award-winning, multi-sensory course that teaches typing, reading and spelling

How does TTRS work?

Developed in line with language and education research

Teaches typing using a multi-sensory approach

The course is modular in design and easy to navigate

Includes school and personal interest subjects

Positive feedback and positive reinforcement

Reporting features help you monitor usage and progress

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7 Ways to help a frustrated student

Students who are confused may quickly become frustrated in the classroom if they are pressured to perform. It may be the case that attention or processing difficulties have prevented a learner from understanding a lesson, or that the instructions for a particular assignment are not clear to them.

In some cases motor skills difficulties, such as problems with handwriting, prevent a child from demonstrating their knowledge.

Visual processing disorder and dyslexia

Visual processing disorders can interrupt an individual’s ability to understand and navigate written symbols, which may cause problems with math/maths and learning to read at school. They’re not due to vision problems or any issues with the eyes, but rather with how the brain interprets visual information.

On the other hand, dyslexia is a separate condition that often makes it challenging to break spoken language down into its component parts. This, in turn, complicates reading and spelling. While the two conditions can look similar, they have different causes and thus children and adults who have one and not the other will require a different set of strategies and accommodations.

You may also encounter the term visual dyslexia , which can describe individuals who have dyslexia but are prone to reversing or transposing letters, struggle with locating words on the page, and have a tendency to skip over words.

6 Tips for teaching EAL pupils

EAL pupils can come from any first language background – and may even speak more than one first language – which is what gives them their English as an Additional Language status. What they have in common is that they are all receiving their education in a predominantly English-speaking country. Some children are absolute beginners and others are highly advanced in English and may even sound like native speakers.

Depending on their age and background, EAL learners might be literate in their mother tongue – which can give them an edge in developing English literacy skills - or they may not yet have learned to read and write.

Many educators enjoy teaching EAL learners as they often bring new perspectives and approaches to problem solving into the classroom. They can also be challenging, for example if you’re teaching a large class and they require a lot of individual attention, or if they are having trouble adjusting to the new school system.

Experienced educators know though that even with no knowledge of a student’s mother tongue and little experience teaching non-native learners, it’s still possible to give children and young adults access to the resources, strategies, and tools they need to be successful at school.

Typing spelling words

There are many ways to practice a list of spelling words, from making flash cards, to using oral recitation, or just plain writing the words out by hand. Yet one of the most effective and easiest approaches is using a computer or tablet and wireless keyboard.

Not only is typing convenient, but it is also a multi-sensory activity that involves kinetic elements which can aid learning and retention of letter patterns. Typing is a highly accessible solution for learners who struggle with fine-motor skills and find it painful to write by hand, such as in dyspraxia .

It is also the preferred approach when dysgraphia is present or in certain cases of autism spectrum disorder , particularly for nonverbal individuals.

Moreover, touch-typing a word allows muscle memory to encode the spelling as a series of key strokes . This is a great aid for students who struggle with language-based learning difficulties. Learn more in this post on touch-typing for learners with dyslexia . Also note, learners with no disabilities, difficulties, or learning differences will still benefit from this approach as multi-sensory learning is effective for everyone.

Modifications for students with Down syndrome

Some learners with Down syndrome attend special schools where they are taught a specific curriculum and have lesson content and delivery adapted for their needs. Others may learn at home or as part of a co-op.

However, it’s increasingly common for children to enrol in their local education system where they can study alongside non-Down syndrome peers. There are a number of benefits to this, including the ability to enhance a student’s sense of independence, foster stronger ties within the community, and assist a learner in developing social skills. It may also prepare young-adults and teens for volunteer/work opportunities later on, and can generally be more convenient and financially practical for families.

But when a learner with Down syndrome joins a regular class, this also means that certain teaching approaches and exercises may need to be modified in order to ensure the student gets the maximum benefit from his or her studies.

Autism and typing

Many children and adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) struggle to express themselves in speaking and writing. Communication challenges can range from mild to severe: one child with autism may speak fluently with an impressive vocabulary and another might be completely nonverbal. Some learners say the same word over and over, and others repeat a series of sounds, or the speech of others, a condition known as echolalia .

But experiencing difficulties with speaking does not necessarily mean an autistic child cannot understand, process and use language to represent his or her thoughts, it may just be he or she doesn’t have the ability to express what’s inside . That’s why it can be useful to explore alternative forms of communication , such as typing. Typing can help verbal and nonverbal autistic learners as well as those who struggle to write by hand.

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Grade 3 Writing

Discover grade 3 writing standards.

By third grade, your child should be accustomed to the learning pace at elementary school level, and will now be expected to spend longer periods of time writing independently. Young writers should rely on language arts skills they built in Grade 1 and Grade 2 as the foundation they need in order to tackle more challenging writing activities .

Third grade writing requires children to demonstrate:

• Effective communication of ideas through written texts
• Structured writing pieces, including a short introduction , main body and conclusion
• Paragraph-writing skills
• Using correct spelling and grammar in their writing (such as tenses and capitalization )
• Longer and more complex sentence forms
• Research and identify facts using reading comprehension skills
• Factual knowledge in informative reports
• Successfully writing about past experiences
• Writing improvement through revision
• Writing based on a given prompt
• Using technology to compose different writing pieces
• Applying literary devices for the purpose of developing details
• Writing for different audiences and purposes

Your child can keep these aims in mind when thinking about the writing process for the following text styles:

Informative Writing

Opinion writing, narrative writing.

Informative writing in Grade 3 calls for a focus on a specific topic and putting together factual details with the aim to inform the reader.

Here are our top tips for creating a high-quality informative writing piece at third grade level:

• Introduce the topic
• Group all related information clearly, to form the text
• Include facts, definitions, details and, if necessary, analogies to support the text
• UIse illustrations or diagrams (when or if necessary) to further the reader’s understanding
• Use linking words to connect points of information
• Include a concluding sentence, stating findings clearly

Some informative writing text styles in Grade 3 are:

• Explanations

Practice Tip

Your third grader can work on their informative writing skills with Night Zookeeper’s Explanation Writing Activity Pack . This pack introduces examples of linking words and phrases that can help connect ideas in informational writing!

Opinion writing at third grade level requires more attention to detail, a stronger argument, and consistency throughout the text.

In third grade, your child is expected to demonstrate their point of view on a chosen topic and provide valid reasons for their perspective. Your child’s writing in third grade should also include linking words and phrases to piece together a compelling argument. Grade 3 learners should be working on writing to persuade or influence an audience.

How to write an opinion piece at third-grade level

• Start with a short introduction, stating a clear opinion on the topic
• Give a reason for this opinion, followed by a convincing example that validates the point
• Always refer back to the original statement, to ensure that the argument is consistent and coherent
• Finish with a summary of the argument, stating the original opinion once again, to leave the reader thinking about the perspective shared

You can encourage your child to develop opinions on specific topics by engaging in topical discussions! Choose a theme and start a conversation about it - you’ll be surprised by the opinions your child has already formed!

Stories at Grade 3 level should rely on descriptive writing techniques to create a cohesive plot of events, which provide the reader with as much information on the characters , settings and actions as possible!

As it’s not the first time your child will be asked to write a narrative text, they’ll already be familiar with the standard rules of story writing . As the complexity of their work increases however, here are a few tips on how the narrative writing process should happen in third grade:

• Plan and develop a well-structured plot
• Establish characters, settings and actions according to the theme of the story (be as descriptive as possible)
• Use figurative language and literary devices to enhance the plot
• Include an introduction, paragraphs which allow the story to progress chronologically and finish with a great narrative ending

Why not get your child to draw the characters and settings of their story before writing the piece? Not only will this encourage them to think about more details which can be described in the story (such as the clothes worn by the characters or the type of setting), but it will also improve their ability to think creatively about the chosen topic or theme!

How Night Zookeeper can help

Night Zookeeper is a language arts program and has been created to make language arts fantastically fun for elementary school students!

The extensive collections of lesson series on our program are especially relevant for Grade 3 students, such as The Persuasive Professor , Building Story Tension with the General , and Story Endings with the Guardians . Along with pre-defined lesson plans that your child can access at any time, Nightzookeeper.com also offers thousands of third grade writing activities , including games on spelling and grammar, creative writing prompts , printable resources, and much more!

All writing resources are determined by grade level, to ensure that your third grader has access to everything they need to become a budding young writer.

Sign up to our program today to get a free 7-day trial!

Related articles:

• Grade 3 Writing Prompts
• Grade 3 Reading
• Grade 3 Spelling
• Grade 3 Grammar
• Grade 3 Punctuation