It’s the third day of 3rd grade — time to get creative and have some fun with your students. To get your class off to a great start, why not make the third day of 3rd grade all about “threes?” Here are a few ideas to create an exciting and memorable first week in third grade that everyone can enjoy!
Three-Word Story
Have the class come up with a story using only three words at a time. Have each student contribute three words and keep going around the room until it’s complete! This is an excellent team-building exercise and can really get those creative juices flowing. Record the story on the board for all to see as it unfolds three words at a time.
Three Versions of 3 Little Pigs + Craft
Choose 3 different versions of The Three Little Pigs to compare and contrast–there are a TON to choose from! After discussing the similarities and differences between the three versions, let your students make a paper bag pig puppet. I like using dessert-sized pink paper plates for the head and pink cupcake liners to the nose. When their third day of 3rd grade pig creations are complete, they can use their creations to retell their favorite version of the story!
Three Strikes Trivia
Divide your class into teams and ask them trivia questions based on threes. Give each team three chances to answer correctly before moving on to the next question. For example, “Name three US states that begin with M” or “What is 3 x 3?” The team who scores the highest wins!
Three-In-A-Row
Get your students moving with this third day of 3rd grade game! Draw out a giant tic-tac-toe board on a whiteboard or draw it out on paper. Cut out giant Xs and Os with tape on the back to use as team board pieces. Divide students into two teams and allow each team to take turns relay style adding Xs and Os in a race to get three in a row!
Third Day of 3rd Grade Photos
Head to the dollar store for a #3-shaped balloon and take a photo of each student holding the balloon on the third day of 3rd grade. As a sweet end to the third grade year, you can retake the photo on the 173rd day of school or 4th day until 4th grade during the last week of school. It’s always fun to see how much they’ve grown and changed over the course of the year.
Triangle Tag
Head outside for a little third day of 3rd grade fun. This tag game is played like regular freeze tag but with a triangle twist. One person is it for a designated amount of time (2-3 minutes). When they tag someone they are frozen. In order to get unfrozen 3 other classmates must form a triangle by holding hands around the outside of the frozen player. Once the triangle is complete the frozen player is free to run again. But players watch out…you can still get tagged and frozen while trying to unfreeze another player!
Three Things About Me
On the day before, send a brown bag home with each student with the homework assignment to find 3 things about them that will fit into the brown bag. On the 3rd day of 3rd grade let each student share their 3 things as a way to get to know each other better.
Three-person STEM challenge
The third day of 3rd grade is a great time to introduce your students to STEM! Have students work in groups of 3 to create a three-floor tower using 30 marshmallows and 30 toothpicks. For a super challenge, they can try to make it 3 feet tall as well!
Three Truths & One Lie
Break students into small groups and have them write down three facts about themselves, but one of them must be false. Once they’ve written their facts down, they can go around their group to guess which one is a lie!
$333 Journal Entry
One last thrid of of 3rd grade idea–Have students write about how they would spend $333. This is a writing activity and a math activity!
There you have it—ten fun activities for your third day with third graders and bring the “threes” together in fun ways! Whether you try one of these ideas or all ten, you can be sure that your third graders will have plenty of memorable moments on their first week back at school!
To keep the beginning-of-the-year fun going while also targeting your academic standards, check out my collection of beginning-of-the-year task cards for all kinds of Math and ELAR skills!
…and here’s freebie just to celebrate the beginning of a new year!!
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