Third Grade
We are excited to share The World According to Humphrey, our Writing Journal, and Building Writers with your third grader. Here are some strategies to encourage your student to reach for literacy success.
Tips for Reading to and with Your Young Reader
Dedicate 30 minutes for reading each day. Several studies indicate students’ reading abilities decline or stall during the summer because of a lack of exposure to literacy. However, students who read at least 30 minutes each day encounter more vocabulary and reinforce essential reading skills.
Pay Attention to Prefixes and Suffixes
When your learner uses a word with a prefix or suffix, occasionally stop to talk about it. Break down the word and say what the prefix or suffix and root word mean when they’re put together, and brainstorm other words that have the same suffix or prefix.
About this Book
Your reader will be enthralled with this simple and endearing story of the humble hamster, Humphrey. With his common sense and aggressive nose for right and wrong, Humphrey turns the world of those he meets upside down—for the better! What Humphrey really does is teach lessons. Author Betty G. Birney lets Humphrey recognize and supply the life lessons that give both students and adults the confidence to confront their secrets and meet their respective challenges. Through this first-person narrative from the perspective of a classroom pet, your reader will see that first impressions are not always accurate. People are multifaceted, and you can’t truly understand a person until you see all aspects of their life. And when people have problems, it sometimes takes an outsider—like Humphrey—to open their eyes to a solution.
During Reading
Beginning chapter books are stories that are long enough to be divided into chapters, but not as extensive or complicated as a novel. These chapter books still feature illustrations, but fewer than early readers’ picture books. This is a wonderful story to read with the whole family. But even when students are reading independently, it is still important to continue to read aloud with them. Read-aloud time boosts their reading comprehension and build vocabulary.
Make a “W” Chart: While you and your learner read books together, make a chart filling out the who, what, when, where, why, and how of the book as you both discover them.
After Reading
This reading and writing pack also includes resources to help your learner practice foundational writing skills while responding to reading in fun and creative ways.
Commit to 10–15 minutes of writing, 3 times a week. All it takes is 30–45 minutes per week to help students improve letter and sentence formation.
Writing Journal
The Writing Journal provides space for your child’s responses to the provided prompts, or their own reactions and descriptions of the story and its connection to their life.
Writing and Conversation Prompts
Help your reader respond to these prompts in their Writing Journal.
• Why does Humphrey see the world from a different point of view than the other students in Room 26?
• Why does Humphrey think the students’ names are Speak-Up-Sayeh, Stop-Giggling-Gail, or Wait-for-the-Bell-Garth? What do you think Humphrey would think your name is, based on your habits?
• Humphrey is puzzled when he first hears that Halloween is approaching. If you were an alien, just arriving from another planet on Halloween, what would you think about the activity around this holiday? Write a description from this unique perspective.
• Ms. Mac tells Humphrey, “You can learn a lot about yourself by taking care of another species.” What do you think she meant by this statement?
• Write out a conversation you might have with a pet or other animal if that animal could talk.
Pay Attention to Handwriting
After enjoying and talking about the content of their writing, look for any letters in the Building Writers or Writing Journal that are less legible. Point out a model of that letter in Building Writers and coach your learner to write a line of that letter in the Writing Journal, with coaching as needed, to improve legibility. To access the Handwriting Without Tears Letter Formation Charts go to LWTears.com/letter-number-formation-charts
CursiveCapitalsFormationChart
Building Writers
NumberNumberStories Stories startsintheStartingCorner.stopsmakesaBigLinedown. inthecorner. startsintheStartingCorner.stopsmakesaBigCurve. inthecorner. walksawayonthebottom.startsintheStartingCorner.themakesaLittleCurvetomakesmiddle.anotherLittleCurvetothebottomcorner. startsintheStartingCorner.tomakesaLittleLinedownwalksthemiddle.acrossthedarknight.umpstothetopandsays, didit.”(BigLinedown)startsintheStartingCorner. middle.makesaLittleLinedowntothe tstartstorain. putsmakesaLittleCurvearound. aLittleLineontoptostoptherain.
startsintheStartingCorner.stopsmakesaBigLinedown. inthecorner. startsintheStartingCorner.stopsmakesaBigCurve. inthecorner. walksawayonthebottom.startsintheStartingCorner.makesmakesaLittleCurveto anotherLittleCurvetothebottomcorner. startsintheStartingCorner.
startsintheStartingCorner.makesaLittleLineacross betterslidedown.” doesn’tisdifferent.likecorners. beginsstartsatthetopcenter. withSandthen goeshome. hasissospecial. makesitsowncorner.paLittleCurveand tothecorner. makesaBigLinedown. usestwoplaces.
©2020LearningWithoutTears
startsintheStartingCorner.goesisababybear.downtocurlupinthecorner. ishibernating. startsintheStartingCorner.themakesaLittleLineacrosssays,top. “ betterslidedown.” doesn’tisdifferent.likecorners. beginsstartsatthetopcenter. withSandthen goeshome. hasissospecial. makesitsowncorner.paLittleCurveand tothecorner. makesaBigLinedown. 0comesusestwoplaces. first. startsisnext.atthetopcenter.isfinished. ©2018LearningWithoutTears
Continue to help your child improve their writing ability by using Building Writers. Building Writers helps children develop key narrative, informational, and opinion writing skills by providing a step-by-step model to build confidence. Building Writers includes an easy-to-follow writing checklist to help children develop good writing habits.
In addition to our Summer Reading and Writing Packs, we also have free resources to support your students. Be sure to visit our site for letter and number formation charts, strategies to build sight word automaticity, and much more!
LWTears.com/resources/summer-learning
