3Rd grade vocab words: Academic vocabulary words for 3rd graders

How to Introduce New Vocabulary to 3rd Grade Students in 2022 – Clutter-Free Classroom

Today is a Tuesday, but it feels like a Monday since we didn’t have school yesterday. On Mondays I introduce the weekly vocabulary words {per the Treasures Reading Curriculum} so since today was pseudo-Monday we did that. I wasn’t quite prepared for the reaction I got when I announced it was time to introduce the new vocabulary words. There were cheers. Lots of cheers, because they thought we would be skipping it this week since it is part of our Monday routine and it doesn’t take long for my little charges to love routines like I do.

I discovered today that they really enjoy my vocabulary routine. They think it is fun and like a game and they were sad at the thought of missing it. Who knew? Anyhow, since it appears to be such a crowd pleaser I wanted to share it with you so your children can also experience the joy of learning new words.

Below are 6 steps for introducing new vocabulary words.

1. Provide Context Clues

I start by showing and reading a sentence that provides context clues to the word, but say “blank” in place of the word.

Today’s first sentence was, “She grew up in a ____ by the school.”

Then I take 5 “guesses” at what the word could be. I love this part because it really reinforces both the importance of context clues in reading and models how to write sentences that include context clues. I also use this opportunity to talk about aspects of grammar that play a role in what the word could be.

Sometimes one of the 5 words is the correct word, but I always take 5 guesses so that we can practice the above skills. 

2. Offer Hints

If the word was not identified, I then write the first letter and they try to figure it out.

Next, I draw in lines to represent the other letters. We talk about the length of the word. If it’s a longer word we talk about how it most likely has more than one syllable which means it has more than one vowel.

Then I start adding in one letter at a time until it is either figured out or spelled out for them.

3. Discuss the Features of the Word

At that point, I point out features. In the example in the photo, I talked about how the “long a” was actually spelled “eigh.” 

4. Define the Word

I read the definition from the curriculum program book. You could also read the definition from a dictionary or online dictionary.

5. Help Students Make a Personal Connection to the Word

Then I ask a question that helps them connect to the word and make sense of it. In this case the question was “What are some special places in your neighborhood?”

Rather than just ask one student to respond, I have them all answer each question with a talking partner. Sometimes I then ask one or two friends to share, but not always.

And that’s that.

6. Include the Words in Your Word Study Center

After the words are introduced, I plug them into my word study center rotations. Sometimes I have them use an activity from my printable spelling activities and other times I have them write sentences that use context clues that tell the meaning of the word.

I hope you found this post about how to introduce new vocabulary helpful! If you did, then you may also be interested in these posts:

• 3 Word Study Ideas for Elementary Teachers
• 18 Printable Spelling Activities that Can be Used with Any Word List
• 10 Tips for Managing Student Books Clubs in Your Elementary Classroom

Random 3rd Grade Vocab Word Generator

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3rd Grade Vocab Words

You’ve found your way to the random third-grade vocab word generator. For those who came looking specifically for a 3rd-grade vocabulary word list, this page will also provide that for you. At the bottom of this page, you’ll find a third-grade vocab words list that will randomly change with each refresh of the page. This generator is a free tool that will give you random 3rd-grade words which can help you, depending on your specific needs, in a number of different ways.

There is nothing to fear when using this generator as it’s extremely simple to use. As long as you can click on a button, you’ll get as many random third-grade words you could ever want. As you may have noticed, the default for the generator is four 3rd-grade vocabulary words. You have the option to change this to any number of words you’d like to have displayed each time you click the button. Another way to get new words generated is to refresh the page.

While you likely arrived at this page because you were specifically looking for third-grade vocabulary words, it may not be totally obvious how the random 3rd-grade word generator can be useful to you. By far the best way to determine this is to spend fifteen minutes playing with the generator. Doing so should quickly help you see if this is a tool that would benefit you. Another way is to understand how others who come to this page use it so you can possibly adapt their use to your own needs.

Cursive Writing Practice

Third grade is typically when students begin to learn cursive writing in class. A wonderful way to help students (if you’re a teacher) or your own kids (if you’re a parent) practice their cursive writing is to give them random words. There’s no better way to do that than giving them random vocabulary words they should know as part of their grade level to practice their cursive writing. Simply generate a random 3rd-grade vocab word and let the child practice writing it in cursive.

English as a Second Language (ESL) Practice

If you’re a student who is learning English as a second language, a great way to practice basic word vocabulary is to see words that are used in elementary school. Since the words are random, it will give you a good sense if you really know the words and if you don’t, what third-grade words you need to practice. You can also use the third-grade vocabulary word list at the bottom of the page as an additional resource to help practice English words.

Teacher Help

If you are a 3rd-grade teacher, this tool can be an excellent resource to give to your students to practice at home the vocabulary words they need to learn for class. As mentioned above, it can also be used to help them practice and improve their cursive writing. The random third-grade words generator is an alternative learning tool that may appeal to some students and get them a bit more excited about learning the vocab words they need to know in 3rd grade.

Home School Parent Help

For homeschool parents, it’s always a challenge to find new ways to help their children learn the third-grade curriculum without spending a fortune on materials. This tool is completely free and it’s a unique way for kids to learn 3rd-grade vocabulary words. You can use your imagination and come up with different challenges using random words such as asking the child to create a sentence using a random word generated.

It’s our hope that you found the random third-grade vocabulary generator useful for your needs. If you did use it for a specific reason, we’d love to hear how you used it. The more we understand how those visiting this page use this tool, the better chance we can make beneficial adjustments to it in the future. In the same way, if you found something that you didn’t like and would like to see improved, we’d appreciate getting your feedback on this as well. Please help us continue to improve this 3rd-grade vocab words generator so that it can be useful to as many people as possible.

Random List of 3rd Grade Vocabulary Words (a new random list of third-grade vocab words will appear each time this page is refreshed)

1. Ability
2. absorb
3. accuse
4. act
5. active
6. actual
7. adopt
8. advantage
9. advice
10. ambition
11. ancient
12. approach
13. arrange
14. arctic
15. attitude
16. attract
17. average
18. avoid
19. Bold
20. border
21. brief
22. brilliant
23. Cable
24. capture
25. certain
26. chill
27. clever
28. climate
29. cling
30. coast
31. confess
32. consider
33. contain
34. continent
35. convince
36. coward
37. crew
38. crumple
39. custom
40. Decay
41. deed
42. defend
43. delicate
44. device
45. diagram
46. digest
47. disease
48. distant
49. doze
50. drift

5 vocabulary development exercises

How pleasant it is to listen to eloquent and competent speech when a person knows how to choose the right words and accurately describe his thought. And illiterate, “poor” speech, which is quite difficult to understand, cuts the ear just as much. It is a large vocabulary that is a sign of intellectual development and can help you in learning, working or speaking in front of a large audience.

Before starting the study of exercises to increase vocabulary, let’s look at the types of vocabulary:

• Active vocabulary. These are the words that we use in everyday life when communicating with friends, family, colleagues. When writing letters, SMS in chat, social networks. When we speak, we do not think about the words and do not put effort into constructing sentences.
• Passive vocabulary. These are words that we know, but do not use in conversation. As a rule, the passive reserve can be 2-3 times greater than the active one. On occasion, we can search in our head and find the right words, but we do this very rarely.
• External vocabulary. These are words we don’t know. Usually these are specific words from the professional field of activity.

It is rather difficult to set clear boundaries in the vocabulary. Children’s vocabulary can average 1000 words, adults have 10 times more. Erudite people who are constantly engaged in self-development, read a lot of books and constantly study, have a vocabulary of up to 50,000 words. Therefore, we have selected such universal exercises to expand the active vocabulary that schoolchildren, students or specialists can perform.

1. Alphabet exercise. You need to come up with a sentence in which all words will begin with the next letter of the alphabet. Example: “Alina runs in the thick of trees.” Try to make long sentences using words from A to Z.
2. Noun exercise. Make up a story and tell it using only nouns. “Morning. Water. Walk. Dog. Tea. Breakfast. Underground. Job. Meeting. Tasks. Dinner.”
3. Exercise “Verbs”. Repeat the previous exercise, only using verbs instead of nouns.
4. Exercise “Adjectives and adverbs”. Also invent a story, just voice it now with the help of adjectives and adverbs.
5. Exercise “Monophone”. Remember all the words that start with the letter A and come up with a sentence with them, keeping the meaning. And do this with all the letters in the alphabet.

These exercises will be difficult to complete at first, so don’t give up too soon. Each time, it will be easier for you to come up with stories and look for the right words. You will find even more useful information on the website “Russia – the land of opportunities”. The platform hosts free online courses, webinars on marketing, PR, charity, management, psychology, and finance. Follow the link to register on the site and get access to unique programs.

Active and passive vocabulary: how do they differ?

Active vocabulary – these are the words that a person not only knows, but often uses in his oral and written speech. passive vocabulary includes words that a person learns in the learning process, respectively understands them (by ear or in writing), but does not use them in spontaneous speech.

Active and passive vocabulary is individual dictionary , i.e. vocabulary of each individual. It depends on his language level.

There are established vocabulary limits for different levels:
Beginner : 500–600 words;
Elementary : 1000-1300 words;
Pre-Intermediate : 1400-1800 words;
Intermediate : 2000-2500 words;
Upper-Intermediate : 3000-4000 words;
Advanced : 4000-7000 words;
Proficiency : 7000-12000 words

Both dictionaries are important for communication, because the active one allows you to clearly express your thoughts, and the passive one allows you to understand your interlocutor, develop a semantic guess. Words can go from active to passive when you don’t use them, and vice versa from passive to active if you start using them quite often.

It is important to maintain a natural balance. The division of vocabulary into active and passive is a normal division. There is no need to introduce all learned passive words into speech. Some of them may never be useful to you. Therefore, you need to clearly understand why you are learning English. For business negotiations? Then it is unlikely that you need to display colloquial and slang words, words on everyday topics.

Students who have exams in English, of course, need to try to “activate” their vocabulary, replenished from books, because in the oral part of the exams they will have to speak a lot and with reason.

1. Letter! It is during the writing that words are qualitatively remembered. But not thoughtlessly rewriting words 100 times. Use words in sentences, relating them to current interests and desires.

2. Try to consciously use words (which need to be put into active stock) more often in speech. And it is better to speak in the studied language whenever possible.