Grade 3 · printable course

Investigating Our World: Forces, Life, and Earth Systems

Grade 3 · 349 pages · 74 lessons · PDF, print at home

A full-year grade 3 science course built on the NGSS storyline: forces and motion, magnets and static electricity as invisible forces, plant and animal life cycles, inheritance and variation of traits, fossils and ancient environments, organisms in changing environments, and weather patterns and hazards. Students observe, measure, and argue from evidence using household materials with a parent nearby. Each unit opens with retrieval of prior content and closes with a delayed check at least a week later. The course builds one connected model of how living and nonliving systems change over time, rather than eight disconnected topics.

Delivered by email within minutes as a PDF stamped with your name. Print any part as often as you need for the children in your household; the link never expires.

$21.99

one household licence

Want every Grade 3 subject at once? Letters & Devotion Grade 3: The Complete Year is one PDF for $65.99.

What is inside

Every unit and lesson in this book, in order. The same lessons are taught online at lettersanddevotion.com, so a family can move between paper and screen.

Investigating Our World: Forces, Life, and Earth Systems

74 lessons · try a lesson online free

Unit 1: Forces and Motion11 lessons
  1. 1.Push and pull as the two basic forces
  2. 2.Force measured in newtons or spring-scale units on varying surfaces
  3. 3.Balanced forces on a stationary object
  4. 4.Unbalanced forces and net direction of motion
  5. 5.Speed and direction as the two parts of motion
  6. 6.Pattern between ramp height (force input) and roll distance (motion outcome)
  7. 7.Predicting an untested case from a data pattern
  8. 8.Balanced vs. unbalanced force applied to an unfamiliar device
  9. 9.Claim-evidence-reasoning structure applied to ramp investigation data
  10. 10.Limits of a single-variable pattern when a second force-changing variable is introduced
  11. 11.Force vocabulary applied to informational text about tools
Unit 2: Invisible Forces: Magnets and Static Electricity8 lessons
  1. 12.Contact force vs. non-contact force
  2. 13.Magnetic attraction and repulsion by pole orientation
  3. 14.Static electric charge produced by friction
  4. 15.Isolating distance as the one changed variable in a magnet-strength test
  5. 16.The pattern between distance and magnetic force strength
  6. 17.Contact vs. non-contact force in an unfamiliar mechanical system
  7. 18.Balanced/unbalanced force logic applied to magnetic force data, including the case of a stationary object under opposing forces
  8. 19.Definitions of static electric charge and non-contact force
Unit 3: Life Cycles of Plants and Animals10 lessons
  1. 20.The sequence of frog life cycle stages (egg, tadpole, froglet, adult)
  2. 21.The closed-loop diagram structure for a life cycle already demonstrated by the teacher (frog, then bean plant)
  3. 22.The relationship between a life stage and the trait it needs to survive that stage
  4. 23.The difference between metamorphosis and direct growth as two patterns of life cycle change
  5. 24.The bean plant's current growth stage and its change since the last recorded entry
  6. 25.The boundary between force (instant push or pull) and growth response (change over time)
  7. 26.The life cycle stage order of an organism not taught in this unit
  8. 27.The main idea and supporting details of a life-cycle informational text
  9. 28.Information located in diagrams versus information located in running text
  10. 29.The contrast between gradual life-cycle change and instant force-caused change
Unit 4: Inheritance and Variation of Traits9 lessons
  1. 30.Inheritance of traits from parent to offspring
  2. 31.Inherited vs. acquired traits
  3. 32.Inherited vs. acquired traits applied to new examples
  4. 33.Measured variation in a single trait across a sample
  5. 34.Range and typical value as evidence of variation, including that differing individual data points are not errors
  6. 35.Comparison of variation across two data sets
  7. 36.Context-dependence of whether a trait is helpful or harmful
  8. 37.Inherited vs. acquired traits in an unfamiliar organism and context
  9. 38.Written classification argument for trait cards
Unit 5: Fossils and Environments of the Past9 lessons
  1. 39.Fossils as evidence of past life
  2. 40.The three-way distinction between fossil, living thing, and non-living rock
  3. 41.Fossil traits compared to living-organism traits
  4. 42.Rock layers as a record of relative time, oldest at bottom
  5. 43.Relative age ranking from a new rock-layer diagram
  6. 44.Past environment inferred from fossil trait evidence
  7. 45.Limits of fossil evidence
  8. 46.Two texts describing the same fossil site
  9. 47.Past environment inference from a novel fossil sample
Unit 6: Organisms in a Changing Environment8 lessons
  1. 48.Environment as everything around an organism, including weather, food, water, and other organisms
  2. 49.The distinction between fast and slow environmental change
  3. 50.The fit between a specific trait and a specific environment
  4. 51.Trait-environment fit applied to an unfamiliar organism-environment pair
  5. 52.Population outcomes under fast versus slow environmental change
  6. 53.A trait-environment survival claim supported by cited evidence from a prior unit
  7. 54.The logical connection between claim, environmental change, and cited evidence in a peer's argument
  8. 55.Trait-environment fit judgment under a genuinely novel scenario
Unit 7: Weather Patterns and Hazards8 lessons
  1. 56.The three measurable weather variables: temperature, wind, precipitation
  2. 57.Thermometer reading procedure
  3. 58.A temperature line graph of a recorded data set
  4. 59.The relationship between season and typical weather pattern
  5. 60.The distinction between a repeating seasonal pattern and unpredictable daily variation
  6. 61.The match between a weather hazard and a preparedness action suited to it
  7. 62.A graph of the student's own collected weather data
  8. 63.A hazard-preparedness action justified by a student's own weather-pattern evidence
Unit 8: Capstone: Systems We Can Explain11 lessons
  1. 64.The definitions of pattern and evidence
  2. 65.The definitions of force and trait
  3. 66.The claim-evidence-reasoning structure
  4. 67.Contact vs. non-contact force in an unfamiliar scenario
  5. 68.Force, pattern, trait, and evidence as applied across all prior-unit contexts
  6. 69.The shared structure underlying 'pattern' across the fossil-layer and weather-data contexts
  7. 70.An original testable investigation combining force-and-weather or life-cycle-and-variation ideas
  8. 71.Their own chosen investigation's data collection
  9. 72.A claim-evidence-reasoning explanation linking their investigation to specific prior units
  10. 73.The match between a stated claim and the evidence offered for it
  11. 74.The limits of evidence from a single household investigation

More for Grade 3

Everything for Grade 3 · All printable books