Summer
Summer Counts! Grade 3
2nd
Edition
Summer
Counts!
In this book, you’ll find fun-to-do activities to help
you remember what you learned in grade 3:
★ Reading Comprehension
★ Vocabulary
★ Language Arts
★ Writing
★ Math
★ Problem Solving
PLUS . . .
Get a headstart on next year with challenge activities
to help you get ready for grade 4.
Please visit optionspublishing.com
to see our other products.
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OT103
2nd
Edition
!
s
t
n
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Co
Thematic Reading,
Language Arts,
and Math Skills
Table of Contents
Letter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Chapter 1: Helpers
The Shoemaker and the Elves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Nouns: Naming Words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Neighborhood Helpers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Counting Whole Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Helping the Earth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Helper Word Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Challenge Yourself: Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Chapter 2: Camp Time
What a Day for a Knight!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Nouns: Common and Proper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Camping Comparisons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Place Values. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Name the Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Camping Puzzle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Challenge Yourself: Math. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Chapter 3: Animals
The Cricket and the Ant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Verb Tenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Animal Words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Dollars and Cents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Coin Count. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Animal Code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Challenge Yourself: Math. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Chapter 4: Words
Twice a Hero . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Verbs: Past and Present . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Word News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Comparing Numbers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
The Temperature Is Rising . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Writer’s Scramble . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Challenge Yourself: Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Chapter 5: Health
Special Doctors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Pronouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Body Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Rounding Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Pencil Prize . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Doctor Word Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Challenge Yourself: Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Chapter 6: Sports
Megan’s Challenge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Adjectives. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Winning Teams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Adding Whole Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Charting the Miles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Sports Riddles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Challenge Yourself: Math. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Chapter 7: Weather
Two Twisters Touch Down! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Adjectives: Articles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Weather Analogies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Subtracting Whole Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Lines of Symmetry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Weather Puzzle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Challenge Yourself: Math. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Chapter 8: In the Past
The Boston Tea Party . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Make a Statement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Rhyming Words. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Multiplying Whole Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Follow the Pattern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Then and Now. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Challenge Yourself: Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Chapter 9: Food
The Fox and the Grapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Asking a Question. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Word Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Dividing Whole Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Cracker Stacker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Food Scramble. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Challenge Yourself: Math. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Chapter 10: Transportation
The Long Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Exclamations! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Making New Words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Learning Large Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Using a Graph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Road Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Challenge Yourself: Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Reading Check-Up. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Math Check-Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Certificate of Completion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Answer Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
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CHAPTER 1
Once upon a time, there was a poor shoemaker. He had only enough
leather to make one pair of shoes. One evening, the shoemaker cut out
the leather for the shoes. “I will finish the shoes in the morning,” he said.
Then he and his wife went to bed.
The next morning, the shoemaker woke to find that the shoes had
been made. They were the finest shoes he had ever seen. Soon a customer
came into his shop and bought the fine pair of shoes. The shoemaker now
had enough money to buy leather to make two pairs of shoes. That
evening, the shoemaker cut out the leather. Then he and his wife went to
bed. What do you think happened?
The next morning, the shoemaker found that the
shoes had been made again. These shoes were just as
fine as the ones before. Soon two customers came into
the shop. They each bought one pair of shoes. The
shoemaker now had enough money to buy leather to make four pairs of
shoes. That evening, the shoemaker cut out the leather. Then he and his
wife went to bed. This happened day after day after day. The shoemaker
was no longer poor.
One night the shoemaker’s wife had an idea. “Let’s hide in the closet
and see who comes in to make these fine shoes.” So they did.
At midnight, two tiny elves entered the shop from the chimney. They
did not have any shoes on. The elves went right to work making shoes.
They did not stop until they were done.
When the elves left, the shoemaker had an idea. “I want to thank the
kind elves for helping me. I will make
some shoes for them.”
The next day, he sewed tiny little shoes.
He left them on the table. When the elves
came that night, they were surprised. They
put on the little shoes and danced right
up the chimney. The shoemaker did not
see the elves again.
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Reading Comprehension Grade 3
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The Shoemaker and the Elves
Directions Using what you have just read, answer the questions.
1. Where did this story take place?
2. What happened every time a new pair of shoes were made?
3. Why do you think that the shoemaker and his wife hid in the closet?
4. Why did the shoemaker make shoes for the elves?
5. Is this selection real or make-believe? How do you know?
Reading Comprehension Grade 3
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Nouns: Naming Words
Remember
Naming words are called nouns. Nouns name people, places,
and things.
Singular nouns name one person, place, or thing. Plural nouns
name more than one person, place, or thing. Some nouns
change in spelling when they become plural.
• Add -s to most singular nouns to make them plural.
• Add -es to singular nouns that end with s, x, ch, and sh.
• Change y to i and add -es to nouns that end with a
consonant and y.
Examples
Singular
Plural
one girl
two girls
one fox
two foxes
one family
two families
one child
two children
Helping Out at the Farm
Directions Read the sentences and the nouns that follow. Write the
correct form of each noun on the line.
1. Two
visited a farm to help out the farmer. (class)
2. The students saw many animals in the
. (barn)
3. They wanted to help feed the
4. Anna got to feed a
5. Ernie got to feed four
6. All the students got to feed the
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Language Grade 3
. (animal)
. (horse)
. (puppy)
. (chicken)
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Neighborhood Helpers
Directions Write the singular form of each plural word.
1. nurses
2. policemen
3. teachers
4. coaches
5. firemen
Grandmother’s School
Directions Read the story. Use words from the box below to fill in
the blanks.
art
classes
study
teacher
students
room
My grandmother went to school in a one-room schoolhouse. All the
students sat together for their (6)
. The older
students helped the younger ones with their work. At the same time, the
(7)
would show the older students how to do a
new lesson. All the children would (8)
the same (9)
together in
. Grandmother said that sometimes it
was very noisy in the classroom, but she loved it. Her favorite classes were
(10)
and math.
Vocabulary Grade 3
7