Grade 3 Writing

Discover Grade 3 writing standards

By third grade, your child should be accustomed to the learning pace at elementary school level, and will now be expected to spend longer periods of time writing independently. Young writers should rely on language arts skills they built in Grade 1 and Grade 2 as the foundation they need in order to tackle more challenging writing activities.

Third grade writing requires children to demonstrate:

Effective communication of ideas through written texts
Structured writing pieces, including a short introduction, main body and conclusion
Paragraph-writing skills
Using correct spelling and grammar in their writing (such as tenses and capitalization)
Longer and more complex sentence forms
Research and identify facts using reading comprehension skills
Factual knowledge in informative reports
Successfully writing about past experiences
Writing improvement through revision
Writing based on a given prompt
Using technology to compose different writing pieces
Applying literary devices for the purpose of developing details
Writing for different audiences and purposes

Your child can keep these aims in mind when thinking about the writing process for the following text styles:

Informative Writing
Opinion Writing
Narrative Writing

Informative Writing

Informative writing in Grade 3 calls for a focus on a specific topic and putting together factual details with the aim to inform the reader.

Here are our top tips for creating a high-quality informative writing piece at third grade level:

Introduce the topic
Group all related information clearly, to form the text
Include facts, definitions, details and, if necessary, analogies to support the text
UIse illustrations or diagrams (when or if necessary) to further the reader’s understanding
Use linking words to connect points of information
Include a concluding sentence, stating findings clearly

Some informative writing text styles in Grade 3 are:

Notes
Lists
Explanations
Reports
Rules
Recipes

Practice Tip

Your third grader can work on their informative writing skills with Night Zookeeper’s Explanation Writing Activity Pack. This pack introduces examples of linking words and phrases that can help connect ideas in informational writing!

Opinion Writing

Opinion writing at third grade level requires more attention to detail, a stronger argument, and consistency throughout the text.

In third grade, your child is expected to demonstrate their point of view on a chosen topic and provide valid reasons for their perspective. Your child’s writing in third grade should also include linking words and phrases to piece together a compelling argument. Grade 3 learners should be working on writing to persuade or influence an audience.

How to write an opinion piece at third-grade level

Start with a short introduction, stating a clear opinion on the topic
Give a reason for this opinion, followed by a convincing example that validates the point
Always refer back to the original statement, to ensure that the argument is consistent and coherent
Finish with a summary of the argument, stating the original opinion once again, to leave the reader thinking about the perspective shared

Practice Tip

You can encourage your child to develop opinions on specific topics by engaging in topical discussions! Choose a theme and start a conversation about it - you’ll be surprised by the opinions your child has already formed!

Narrative Writing

Stories at Grade 3 level should rely on descriptive writing techniques to create a cohesive plot of events, which provide the reader with as much information on the characters, settings and actions as possible!

As it’s not the first time your child will be asked to write a narrative text, they’ll already be familiar with the standard rules of story writing. As the complexity of their work increases however, here are a few tips on how the narrative writing process should happen in third grade:

Plan and develop a well-structured plot
Establish characters, settings and actions according to the theme of the story (be as descriptive as possible)
Use figurative language and literary devices to enhance the plot
Include an introduction, paragraphs which allow the story to progress chronologically and finish with a great narrative ending

Practice Tip

Why not get your child to draw the characters and settings of their story before writing the piece? Not only will this encourage them to think about more details which can be described in the story (such as the clothes worn by the characters or the type of setting), but it will also improve their ability to think creatively about the chosen topic or theme!

How Night Zookeeper can help

Night Zookeeper is a language arts program that has been created to make language arts fantastically fun for elementary school students!

The extensive collections of lesson series on our program are especially relevant for Grade 3 students, such as The Persuasive Professor, Building Story Tension with the General, and Story Endings with the Guardians. Along with pre-defined lesson plans that your child can access at any time, Night Zookeeper also offers thousands of third grade writing activities, including games on spelling and grammar, creative writing prompts, printable resources, and much more!

All writing resources are determined by grade level, to ensure that your third grader has access to everything they need to become a budding young writer.

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