I am STEM Lesson Library for Grade 3

All lessons align to Grade-Level ELA Standards

Lessons at a Glance

Full Lessons

Grade 3 • Creepy Carrots

Creepy Carrots

Creepy-Carrots-by-Aaron-Reynolds-and-Peter-Brown

Lesson Summary

Jasper Rabbit loves eating the delicious carrots at Crakenhopper Field. He notices that the carrots start following him everywhere. Although his family tries to convince him that the carrots are not creeping up on him, he is desperate to find a solution to keep them away. He builds a fence to keep the carrots contained on Crakenhopper Field. He is happy to have some peace but the surprise ending reveals that the carrots had planned this scenario to keep him away from their field!

Using the Engineering Design Process, students will design and build a fence to keep Jasper out of Crakenhopper Field. The model of the fence should surround an area of at least 120 square centimeters and should be at least twice as high as Jasper to keep him out.

STE or Math Standards

  • STE:  Technology Engineering

    3.3-5-ETS1-1. Define a simple design problem that reflects a need or a want. Include criteria for success and constraints on materials, time, or cost that a potential solution must meet.

  • MATH: Measurement and Data

    3.MD.C. Geometric measurement: understand concepts of area and relate area to multiplication and to addition. 

    1. Recognize area as an attribute of plane figures and understand concepts of area measurement. 
    2. Measure areas by counting unit squares (square cm, square m, square in., square ft., and non-standard units).

    ***For this project, teachers and/or students can choose the method for measuring area.

ELA Standards

  • Grade 3 Speaking/Listening Standards: Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas 

    1. Report on a topic, text, or solution to a mathematical problem, tell a story, or recount an experience with appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details, speaking clearly at an understandable pace and using appropriate vocabulary.

Video

Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds

Grade 3 • Those Darn Squirrels Fly South

Those Darn Squirrels Fly South

Those Darn Squirrels Fly South Adam Rubin Book Cover

Lesson Summary

Design a device or shelter

Old Man Fookwire, although a grump, has a love of painting colorful birds. Although he finds squirrels a bit pesty, they persuade him to travel south for the winter, just like birds do. During this season in the south, Old Man Fookwire could continue his painting (and maybe not be so grumpy)! In this climate, his body is sweltering in the heat of the sun, which makes painting for long periods of time a hardship.

Design and build a device or shelter that will help Old Man Fookwire stay cool while painting in this hotter climate.  Keep in mind that he has adapted to living in a northern climate and has not yet adapted to the heat of the southern climate.

STE or Math Standards

  • Earth’s Systems:
    3.ESS2.2. Obtain and summarize information about the climate of different regions of the world to illustrate that typical weather conditions over a year vary by region.

ELA Standards

  • Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas:
    CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.3.4
    Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience with appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details, speaking clearly at an understandable pace.

Video

Those Darn Squirrels Fly South by Adam Rubin

Grade 3 • Stellaluna

Stellaluna

Book Cover The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind

Lesson Summary

Design a device to help the bats or birds

Stellaluna, the bat, gets separated from her mother, and is befriended by a family of birds who teach her how to behave like a bird. She later learns that birds and bats are quite different and can’t always do the same things (even if they want to). 

Design and build a device that will help the birds or Stellaluna do something that their inherited characteristics don’t normally allow them to do (i.e. help the birds to fly at night).

STE or Math Standards

  • Heredity: Inheritance and Variation of Traits:
    3-LS3-2. Distinguish between inherited characteristics and those characteristics that result from a direct interaction with the environment. Give examples of characteristics of living organisms that are influenced by both inheritance and the environment.

ELA Standards

  • Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas:
    SL3.4 – Report on a topic, text, or solution to a mathematical problem, tell a story, or recount an experience with appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details, speaking clearly at an understandable pace and using appropriate vocabulary.

 

Video

Stellaluna read by Pamela Reed