Grade 3 English
Grade 3 English: the year the letters become words, and the words become short sentences.
What Grade 3 covers
Grade 3 works in four skill competencies — listening, speaking, reading and writing. Alphabet work, vocabulary, language patterns, poems and games are not separate subjects; they sit inside those four.
The year is built on very short units of language. Words of three or four letters, lists of five to ten known words, and reading sentences that do not exceed five words.
The four competencies in Grade 3
| Skill | What the syllabus asks for at this grade |
|---|---|
| Listening | Identifying the sound each letter of the alphabet makes, and matching letters to sounds aloud. |
| Speaking | Verbally matching the letters of the alphabet; naming nouns and verbs from the child's immediate surroundings. |
| Reading | Reading a list of five to ten known words. Reading and understanding this and that in context. Simple texts with sentences of no more than five words. |
| Writing | Writing the letters of the alphabet independently. Beginning a sentence with a capital letter, writing a name with a capital first letter, and ending with a full stop. |
Vocabulary and language patterns
Grade 3 introduces article–noun and adjective–noun combinations, and the verbs that go with everyday surroundings. Numbers are used up to a total of twenty, with the ordinals 1st, 2nd, 3rd and the last. Shapes in the immediate environment are named and described.
Source: English Language Teachers' Guide, Grade 03, Department of English, National Institute of Education, Maharagama, first edition 2017, to be implemented from 2018.
Activities for this grade
Alphabet and phonics
Letter names against letter sounds, and blending sounds into words — the Grade 3 starting point.
Poems and rhymes
Rhyme makes the sounds of English easier to hear, which is what listening asks for here.
Games and practice
Letter, word and sentence activities that mark themselves.
Still being prepared for Grade 3
Graded word lists of five to ten words, this/that practice, and writing exercises for capital letters and full stops are being prepared against the Grade 3 Teacher's Guide. They will appear here as each is checked.