Grade 3
Grade 3 Science Tutoring
Live online Grade 3 science in groups of four: animal groups, human organs, food chains, solids liquids and gases, separating mixtures, shadows, magnets and fossils.
The short answer
Grade 3 science asks for explanations rather than labels. The year covers living, once living and never alive, plant and organ functions, animal groups, food chains, solids, liquids and gases, separating mixtures, gravity and friction, shadows and opaque materials, magnets, and the Earth and Moon.
What we cover in Grade 3 Science
- Living, once living and never alive
- The functions of roots, stems, leaves and flowers
- Groups of animals: fish, reptiles, mammals, birds, amphibians and insects
- Human organs: brain, heart, lungs, stomach and intestines
- Food chains: producers and consumers
- Solids, liquids and gases
- Mixtures and how to separate them
- Forces: gravity and friction
- Light, shadows, and transparent, translucent and opaque materials
- Magnets: poles, attraction and repulsion
By the end of the year
- Sort animals into groups using observable features, and name the main human organs and describe their functions.
- Explain how a shadow forms and investigate how its size changes with the position of the object and the light source.
- Describe how a mixture can be separated by sieving, filtering or using a magnet.
Where students get stuck
- Not accepting gases as matter, because they cannot be seen or held.
- Treating a shadow as a dark reflection of the object rather than as an area where light has been blocked.
From naming to explaining
Grade 1 named the parts of a plant. Grade 3 asks what each part is for, and the answer has to be a function rather than a label — roots take in water, leaves make food, the flower makes seeds.
That same move happens in every strand this year. Organs get jobs, animal groups get defining features, and mixtures get a separation method chosen for a reason. Answers stop being one word, which is why science and English start reinforcing each other from here on.
Gases are matter, even though you cannot hold them
Solids and liquids are easy to accept. A gas has no visible boundary, cannot be picked up, and to an eight-year-old looks a great deal like nothing at all, so it gets classed as an absence rather than a substance.
A balloon that gets heavier when inflated, or a bubble of air pushed out of an upturned glass under water, does more than a definition. Once a child accepts that air takes up space and can be moved about, the particle model in Grade 6 has something to attach to.
A shadow is missing light, not a dark copy
Children describe a shadow as the object's dark picture on the ground. It is a reasonable reading of what they see, and it predicts the wrong things — that the shadow should show detail, and that it should not change size.
Moving a torch closer and further while the object stays still settles it quickly. The shadow grows and shrinks without the object changing, which only makes sense if what is being drawn is the blocked light rather than the object itself.
- Animal groups Grade 3 classifies into
- 6Animal groups Grade 3 classifies into[1]
- Session length
- 45 minSession length
- Maximum students in a group
- 4Maximum students in a group
Common questions
What science do Grade 3 students learn?
Living, once living and never alive, the functions of plant parts, animal groups, human organs, food chains, solids, liquids and gases, separating mixtures, gravity and friction, light and shadows, magnets, and the Earth, Moon and fossils.
Is science a separate subject in Grade 3 in Pakistan?
Not yet under the Single National Curriculum. Grade 3 is the last year in which science content sits inside General Knowledge; standalone General Science begins at Grade 4. Cambridge and British-curriculum schools have taught it as a separate subject throughout.
My child does not believe air is a substance. How do I show it?
Weigh a balloon before and after inflating it, or push an upturned glass into a bowl of water and watch the air keep the water out. Both show air taking up space and having mass, which is more convincing at eight than a definition is.
Sources
- Cambridge Primary Science curriculum — Cambridge Assessment International Education
- Single National Curriculum: General Knowledge, Grades I–III — Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training, Pakistan
- National curriculum in England: science programmes of study — Department for Education
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