English Grade 3
Assignment
Beginning in third grade, students must read at least three books during the summer. Students must read the required book for English and at least one book in the other language of study. The third book may be from either language. The books listed below are generally grouped by curriculum area for the upcoming year.
Required
- Hoberman, Mary Ann and Frazee, Marla, The Seven Silly Eaters
Poor Mrs Peters has seven children, each of whom is a picky eater. How can she keep each of them happy? And what happens when they decide to cook for her?
Choose from the following:
Keeping Healthy
- Brown, Marc, D. W. The Picky Eater
- Cole, Joanna, The Magic School Bus Inside the Human Body
- Simon, Seymour (titles on various topics, including the human body systems)
D. W. learns that it is okay to try new things, like different foods, because you just might like them!
Another title in this well-known series. Ms. Frizzle and students explore the heart, brain, digestive system, muscles and blood.
Simon's books provide rich illustrations and well-written text on many topics. Wonderful resources for the beginning researcher.
Ever Changing Earth
- Walker, Sally M., Mary Anning: Fossil Hunter
- Sayre, April Pulley, Stars Beneath Your Bed
Describes the life of Mary Anning, who discovered many of the best and most complete fossils in nineteenth-century England, yet received little credit for her work.
Is the dust under the bed a part of a comet or perhaps a bit of the moon? Could it be a smidgen of soil or rock upon which the dinosaurs roamed? Are there motes of stars floating beneath your bed?
Steps in History
- American Girls (series by various authors)
- Chisholm, Jane, Who Were the Vikings?
- Dorris, Michael, Morning Girl
- Goble, Paul, The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses
- January, Brendan, Explorers of North America
- Miles, Miska, Annie and the Old One
- Sneve, Virginia D. H., Dancing Teepees: Poems of American Indian Youth
- St. George, Judith, So You Want To Be an Explorer?
- Winter, Jeanette, Follow the Drinking Gourd
- Woodson, Jacqueline, Show Way
Meet Felicity, Addy, Samantha, Kirsten, Molly, Kit, Kaya and Josefina. From colonial times through World War II, the adventures of these girls cover all that it means to be an American girl.
A "starting point" history book on this remarkable and resilient culture.
Morning Girl, who loves the day, and her younger brother Star Boy, who loves the night, grow up on an island in pre-Columbian America and she witnesses the arrival of the first Europeans to their world.
A Caldecott-winning story of a young Native American girl who follows her heart and a community that respects and accepts her for who she is.
Learn about the explorers in North America from 1000 to 1804, from Leif Ericsson, to Christopher Columbus, to John Cabot and Lewis and Clark.
"A poignant, understated, rather brave story of a very real child, set against a background of Navajo traditions and contemporary Indian life. Fine expressive drawings match the simplicity of the story."-Horn Book. Newbery Honor Book; ALA Notable Children's Book.
An illustrated collection of poems from the oral tradition of Native Americans.
Here is an interesting and amusing look at some explorers, famous and not so famous, across the centuries.
Tells the story of men, women and children who risked their life to obtain freedom from slavery by following the stars of the "drinking gourd" (the Big Dipper).
Mothers taught their daughters to make "show ways," or quilts which once served as secret maps for freedom-seeking slaves.
Let's Dance, Paint and Make Music
- Gerstein, Mordecai, What Charlie Heard
- Pinkney, Andrea Davis, Duke Ellington: The Piano Prince and His Orchestra
- Rylant, Cynthia, The Van Gogh Café
- Silverstein, Shel, A Light in the Attic and Falling Up
- Tallchief, Maria, Tallchief: America's Prima Ballerina
- Venezia, Mike, Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists (Picasso, van Gogh, etc.)
An inspired picture-book biography of the innovative 20th-century American composer Charles Ives.
A wonderfully vibrant book that recounts the life of one of the most famous princes of the jazz piano.
Rylant offers seven vignettes of life at the Van Gogh Café. Situated off I-70 in Flowers, Kansas, the café is run by Marc and his 10-year-old daughter Clara who appreciate the magic that comes from the café's very walls. From the sign over the register, reading Bless All Dogs, to the purple hydrangeas painted on the walls of the women's restroom, it is obvious that the café is a friendly place. A joyful, positive book for all children.
A collection of humorous poems and drawings encompassing satires, limericks, ballads, questions, tall stories, ridiculous situations, and a deft way with language.
A picture-book biography of the early life of internationally known American ballerina Maria Tallchief, beginning with her birth on an Osage Indian reservation and ending with her departure as a teenager to join a ballet company in New York City.
These biographies examine the lives and works of men and women in the arts.
Off to Work We Go
- Best, Cari, Sally Jean, the Bicycle Queen
- Erlbach, Arlene, The Kids' Business Book
- Gutman, Dan, The Get Rich Quick Club
- Hiller, B.B., Rent a Third Grader
Sally Jean has outgrown her beloved bicycle, Flash. Which is the best idea for acquiring a new, bigger one?
Answers questions and gives ideas about small businesses for kids.
In their small Maine town, twelve-year-old Gina and four of her friends begin summer vacation with a pact to become millionaires before school starts in September.
Learn about the value of hard work just as these third graders do.
It's Home to Us
- New True Books (various authors, various topics)
- Baylor, Byrd, The Desert is Theirs
- George, Jean Craighead, One Day (series: in the prairie, woods, tropical rain forest, tundra...)
- Gibbons, Gail (titles on various topics, from puffins to plants)
- Willow, Diane, At Home in the Rain Forest
Discusses and describes different topics such as air pollution, the benefits of clean air, and the harmful effects of and ways of avoiding air pollution, different species of alligators and crocodiles, climate, geography, exploration, plant and animal life, features of the Atlantic Ocean including its icebergs, the area known as the Sargasso Sea, and such inhabitants as eels and dolphins, the history, culture, and changing fortunes of the Cayuga Indians and many others.
Delivers a poetic message about the desert environment with information on animal and plant life of the desert.
Relates a boy's adventure in one of the habitats.
With the simple style and bold format that characterize her books, Gibbons explains complex and popular subjects for the youngest researchers. Books are packed with visual information complementing the easy and informative text.
An exciting introduction to life in the rain forest that addresses the interrelationship between plants and animals at the various levels of the habitat.
PYP Attitudes and Profile
- Bridges, Ruby, Through My Eyes: The Autobiography of Ruby Bridges
- Estes, Eleanor, The Hundred Dresses
- Thomas, Joyce Carol, Brown Honey in Broomwheat Tea
A deeply moving story about a courageous little girl who, at the age of 6, became the first black student ever in an all-white public school in the Deep South.
A story about Wanda, who wore the same faded dress to school every day but claimed to have a hundred dresses at home. This tender and lovely story has beautiful full-color illustrations that brilliantly convey the feeling and overtones of the story. A Newbery Honor Book.
In this inspiring collection of poems, National Book Award-winner Joyce Carol Thomas pays tribute to family and individuality.
Other Good Books
- Aardema, Verna, Why Mosquitos Buzz in People's Ears
- Ahlberg, Allan, The Cat Who Got Carried Away
- Baum, L. Frank, The Wizard of Oz (series)
- Christopher, Matt, Catcher with a Glass Arm (series)
- Duffey, Betsy, How to be Cool in Third Grade
- Lindgren, Astrid, Pippi Longstocking (series)
- Look, Lenore, Ruby Lu, Brave and True (series)
- MacDonald, Betty, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle (series)
- Nesbit, Edith, The Enchanted Castle
- Sachar, Louis, Sideways Stories from Wayside School (series)
- Selden, George, Chester Cricket's Pigeon Ride
A folktale that tells why something is the way it is. You will learn why some people believe mosquitoes buzz in people's ears.
Another Gaskitts family adventure - Gus and Gloria have lots to do when Horace, the family cat, ends up in the pet store, Mrs. Gaskitt stays in bed all day and Mr. Gaskitt won't stop vacuuming. Mysteries abound and clever maps provide important clues.
When a twister strikes her Kansas home, Dorothy and her dog, Toto, are whisked away to the magical Land of Oz. Dorothy, Toto, and her companions the Tin Woodsman, the Scarecrow, and the Cowardly Lion go on their enchanting journey along the Yellow Brick Road in search of the wonderful Wizard in the enchanted Emerald City. Her strange and eventful journey leads her to Oz - through a land where nothing is what it seems. Dorothy must seek out the great wizard in order to return home.
Just when he thinks he'll spend the rest of the season on the bench nursing his weak throwing arm, Jody learns what it takes to come through in a pinch.
As Robbie York struggles to cope with the new trials and tribulations of third grade, he decides that the only way to survive is by being cool.
Pippi is an irrepressible, irreverent, and irrefutably delightful girl who lives alone (with a monkey) in her wacky house, Villa Villekulla. When she's not dancing with the burglars, she is attempting to learn the "pluttification" tables at school, fighting Adolf, the strongest man in the world at the circus, or playing tag with police officers. Pippi's highspirited, good-natured hijinks cause as much trouble as fun, but a more generous child you won't find anywhere.
Ruby Lu, an "almost-eight-year-old" girl, is a great big sister, is learning Chinese and how to drive, performs magic tricks and has adventures with friends.
This is the story of a lovable woman who has a knack for curing children of their bad habits, sometimes through reverse psychology and sometimes through magical remedies. Even the holiest terrors turn out to be thoroughly charming young people once Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle gets through with them.
This timeless classic is as engaging today as when first published almost 100 years ago. A tale of magic, childhood and friendship in which four irrepresible English children discover an enchanted castle and a magic wishing ring.
A zany, wacky collection of stories about the thirtieth floor of the Wayside School, which was accidentally built sideways.
Chester Cricket -- the famous cricket in Times Square -- is homesick. When his friend Mario takes him to a sky show in the Planetarium, Chester realizes how much he misses seeing real stars at night.