3rd Grade Science Worksheets and Study Guides
The big ideas in Third Grade Science include exploring the life, earth, and physical sciences within the framework of the following topics: “Habitats and Adaptations” (physical and behavioral adaptations); “Earth’s Materials and Changes” (rocks, soil, water, fossils); “Heat and Changes in Matter” (sources of heat, solids, liquids, gases); and “Motion and Sound” (position, effects of force, vibrations, and pitch).
Earth & Space
A glacier is a slow moving large body of ice. A volcano is an opening in the Earth’s crust from which hot, melted rock forcefully comes out when pressure is built up inside the Earth. An earthquake is a sudden shift in the Earth’s crust that causes the ground to shake and vibrate violently. Weathering is the process of rocks being changed over time by conditions such as rain, snow, ice, pressure.Read more...iWorksheets: 5Study Guides: 1Vocabulary: 3 FreeThe Sun, which is a star, is Earth's source of heat and light. The earth travels in circles around the Sun. The Earth’s rotation every 24 hours results in day and night on Earth. Read more...iWorksheets: 3Study Guides: 1Vocabulary: 1 Earth Structure and Processes Read more...iWorksheets: 2Vocabulary: 3 Natural resources are found on the Earth and are important to living things. Some natural resources come from below the Earth’s surface. Some natural resources are nonrenewable, which means that can not be replaced. Some natural resources are renewable. Three examples of natural resources we have in abundance on Earth are: sunlight, air, and water. Read more...iWorksheets: 3Study Guides: 1Vocabulary: 1 Rocks are solid material found in nature made up of minerals. A mineral is a natural material usually found in the ground. A rock has physical properties like color and composition, or what exact minerals make up the rock. Read more...iWorksheets: 5Study Guides: 1Vocabulary: 2 The Sun is a gigantic star that is made up of hot gases called plasma. The solar system includes the Sun, planets, the moons of each planet, as well as other objects that revolve around the Sun. Read more...iWorksheets: 5Study Guides: 1Vocabulary: 1 Ecosystems
Animals have certain traits which help them survive in their environment. These survival traits are called adaptations. Many adaptations are inherited, which means they are passed on from the parents of animal. Many animals have adaptations for eating such as the way a bird’s beak is shaped. Read more...iWorksheets: 4Study Guides: 1Vocabulary: 2 Living things interact in many ways. These interactions can help, harm, or do nothing to a living thing. Read more...iWorksheets: 5Study Guides: 1Vocabulary: 2 An ecosystem is a community made up of living organisms and nonliving components such as air, water, and mineral soil. Read more...iWorksheets: 2Vocabulary: 4 An environment is everything that surrounds a living thing or person. Everything that lives on Earth lives in a certain environment. Living things get everything they need to survive from their environment. An environment also includes nonliving things. Read more...iWorksheets: 3Study Guides: 1Vocabulary: 2 Forces, Motion & Energy
Energy is the ability to do work. There are two types of energy. One type of energy is energy that is waiting to happen but has not happened yet. This is called potential energy. Another type of energy is called kinetic energy. This type of energy is energy that is happening now. Read more...iWorksheets: 6Study Guides: 1Vocabulary: 4 Motion is the process of an object changing place or position. Position refers to an object's location. The position of an object all depends on how a person is looking at the object and what it us being compared to, which is known as an object's relative position. Read more...iWorksheets: 3Study Guides: 1Vocabulary: 2 Sound is energy that travels in a wave that is caused by vibrations. Vibrations are movements made rapidly back and forth. Vibrations travel through the air and into your ear. You hear sounds when vibrating air causes your eardrum to vibrate. Read more...iWorksheets: 3Study Guides: 1Vocabulary: 1 Work is when you use force upon an object causing the object to move. The amount of work you do has to do with how much force you need to use. Simple machines make doing work easier but they never decrease the amount of work that needs to be done. Read more...iWorksheets: 5Study Guides: 1Vocabulary: 1 Matter
A physical change is when something changes its appearance without changing its makeup. An example of a physical change is chopping wood. An example of a chemical change is burning the wood. Read more...iWorksheets: 3Study Guides: 1Vocabulary: 1 Everything around us is made out matter. Matter is anything that takes up space and has mass. All matter is made up of many different kinds of particles that are combined together in different ways. A property of matter is a feature, trait, or characteristic. Read more...iWorksheets: 6Study Guides: 1Vocabulary: 2 Plants & Animals
All animals need certain things in order to survive. Animals need water, food, movement, protection, shelter, reproduction, and oxygen to survive, and they have many different body parts to get these things they need. Read more...iWorksheets: 3Study Guides: 1Vocabulary: 1 Animals can be classified, or grouped together, by the things they have in common, such as how they act, where they live, or how they look. Scientists separate animals into two main groups related to whether the animal has a backbone in its body or not. Those animals with backbones are part of the vertebrates group. Those animals without a central backbone are invertebrates. Read more...iWorksheets: 5Study Guides: 1Vocabulary: 1 Plants are often put into groups by the type of parts or structures they have. They can be grouped according to their types of leaves, stems, flowers, roots, and even seeds. Many plants have leaves that look similar while others have totally different kinds of leaves. Plant and tree leaves may be different in size, shape, and color. Read more...iWorksheets: 6Study Guides: 1 Plants need many essential things in order to grow, such as: water, air, nutrients, sunlight, and warm temperature. Plants need their space too! If a plant grows too close to other plants, it may not grow healthy and strong, because the plants may compete over the available water, nutrients, and space in the soil for their roots to grow. Read more...iWorksheets: 5Study Guides: 1Vocabulary: 2 A life cycle describes the stages an animal or plant goes through from birth to death. Some vertebrates change their appearance a lot during their life cycle while others hardly change at all. Most plants begin as a seed. A seed is a tiny plant, an embryo, in a little package. A seed stays inactive and doesn’t start growing until the conditions surrounding it are just right for it to start growing. Read more...iWorksheets: 2Vocabulary: 3 A plant has many important parts, such as its roots, stem, leaves, and flower. Each part of a plant has many functions that make it possible for a plant to live. Read more...iWorksheets: 6Study Guides: 1Vocabulary: 2 Technology
There are so many amazing scientific facts out there, waiting to be discovered by you! Check out some of the incredible ‘Did You Know? facts that have to do with many of the science topics you learn about in 3rd Grade. Read more...iWorksheets: 3Study Guides: 1 Science Process Skills: Observing, Classifying, Estimating, Predicting/Hypothesis, Making Inferences, Models, Investigating, Collecting Data, Interpreting Data. Scientific Method: Ask a question, Write an Hypothesis, Create a control variable, Conduct an Experiment, Record Your Data, Decide Your Final Answer, State Your Final Answer. Science Tools. Safety in Science. Read more...iWorksheets: 4Study Guides: 1Vocabulary: 2 Numbers, measuring, making graphs, calculating, adding, subtracting, and more…there is a lot of Math involved in Science. Whether you are studying plants, animals, or the solar system, you will use Math procedures during your investigations and data recording. Read more...iWorksheets: 3Study Guides: 1 Everywhere we look, there are signs of SCIENCE! Science is all around us: Sounds We Hear, Energy We See and Feel, Work and Machines We Use and See, Forces, Motion, and How Things Move Around Us (gravity), Changes in Matter We See, Weather We See Outside, Water that We Use, Natural Resources We Use and Need to Conserve Everyday
(recycling). Read more...iWorksheets: 4Study Guides: 1 Weather
All living things need water to survive and to grow. For example, plants need water to make their own food, while fish need to live in water. The human body is made up of about 2/3 water. Water comes in three forms: liquid, solid, and gas. Read more...iWorksheets: 3Study Guides: 1Vocabulary: 1 What is the weather like outside? Weather is the condition of the air outside. Weather involves many things, such as clouds, temperature, water in the air, and the wind. Read more...iWorksheets: 3Study Guides: 1Vocabulary: 2 Standards
NewPath Learning resources are fully aligned to US Education Standards. Select a standard below to view aligned activities for your selected subject and grade: