Back to School ELA Review for 3rd Grade | 20 Daily Lessons

Make the first month of school smoother with this 3rd grade back to school ELA review designed to revisit essential Grade 2 reading, grammar, vocabulary, word study, and writing skills. With 20 structured daily lessons plus 16 print-and-play literacy games, this resource helps third graders rebuild confidence, establish routines, and prepare for Grade 3 learning.

Each lesson follows a predictable four-part rhythm—Read & Think, Language & Grammar, Word Work, and Write About It—so students can review multiple ELA strands in manageable daily practice. The Teacher Guide recommends approximately 15–25 minutes per full lesson, with skills spiraling from lighter review into combined practice.

What’s Included

This 3rd grade ELA review includes a complete beginning-of-year literacy package:

✅ 20 daily ELA review lessons

✅ 40 pages of daily student lessons

✅ Short fiction, nonfiction, and fable passages

✅ Reading comprehension questions

✅ Text evidence practice

✅ Grammar and language review

✅ Phonics and word study

✅ Vocabulary practice

✅ Daily writing prompts

✅ 16 print-and-play literacy games and activities

✅ Partner and small-group games

✅ Literacy center activities

✅ Complete answer key for all 20 days

✅ Teacher guide

✅ 20-day pacing overview

✅ Four-week planning guide

✅ Differentiation ideas

✅ Game preparation directions

✅ Game-to-skill quick-reference map

✅ Class progress record sheet

✅ Family letter for home-school connection

✅ Student reflection

✅ Reading Star Award

The Student Workbook contains 20 daily lessons plus 16 print-and-play games, covering reading, grammar, word work, vocabulary, and writing across 62 pages.

The complete Answer Key provides answers for all 20 days, organized by section for efficient checking, with reasonable student wording accepted for open writing and reflection tasks.

How It Works in the Classroom

Use this 3rd grade back to school ELA review as a first-month literacy routine, morning work option, whole-group warm-up, independent review, intervention support, homework practice, or beginning-of-year skills check.

Each day follows the same student-friendly structure:

📖 Read & Think — Students read a short fiction, nonfiction, or fable passage and answer comprehension questions, including text-based thinking

✏️ Language & Grammar — Students review a focused Grade 2 language skill

🔤 Word Work — Students practice phonics, vocabulary, morphology, and word relationships

📝 Write About It — Students complete a short writing task connected to the day’s reading or skill focus

A full lesson is designed to take about 15–25 minutes. The predictable routine supports independence, while the spiraled sequence gradually combines reading, language, vocabulary, and writing skills.

Use the resource for:

⭐ Back-to-school ELA review

⭐ Third grade morning work

⭐ Grade 2 skills review

⭐ Beginning-of-year literacy practice

⭐ Reading comprehension review

⭐ Grammar warm-ups

⭐ Vocabulary practice

⭐ Word study

⭐ Literacy centers

⭐ Partner practice

⭐ Small groups

⭐ Early finishers

⭐ Intervention and reteaching

⭐ Formative assessment

⭐ Homework or home practice

The 20-Day Pacing at a Glance chart on page 6 of the Teacher Guide visually maps each day’s reading, language, and word-work focus. Students move from main idea and details, character traits, setting, sequence, and theme into inference, cause and effect, compare and contrast, author’s purpose, point of view, text features, fact and opinion, text evidence, context clues, summarizing, making connections, editing, and mixed review.

For a four-week routine, the Teacher Guide suggests using daily workbook practice Monday through Thursday and reserving Friday for a game, center rotation, or catch-up.

Standards & Learning Goals

This third grade literacy review revisits essential Grade 2 learning across five major ELA strands:

📚 Reading Comprehension — main idea and details, character traits, setting, sequence and plot, theme or central message, inference, cause and effect, compare and contrast, author’s purpose, point of view, text features, fact and opinion, text evidence, context clues, making connections, and summarizing

✏️ Grammar & Language — complete sentences and fragments, subject and predicate, common and proper nouns, verb tense, adjectives and adverbs, pronouns, subject-verb agreement, possessive nouns, capitalization, commas in a series and dates, quotation marks, conjunctions, compound sentences, contractions, irregular plural nouns, irregular past-tense verbs, combining sentences, and editing

🔤 Phonics & Word Study — r-controlled vowels, diphthongs, prefixes, suffixes, root words, long vowel teams, compound words, and syllables

💬 Vocabulary — synonyms, antonyms, context clues, multiple-meaning words, homophones, shades of meaning, word relationships, comparatives, similes, and academic vocabulary

📝 Writing — sentence and paragraph writing, opinion writing with reasons, informative writing, sequencing, comparison writing, text-based responses, summarizing, personal connections, dialogue, descriptive writing, and reflection

The workbook provides targeted daily practice that moves from foundational review into more complex application. For example, students practice character traits with subject and predicate on Day 2, sequence and plot with verb tense on Day 4, compare and contrast with possessive nouns on Day 8, point of view with commas on Day 10, text evidence with contractions on Day 14, and summarizing with editing on Day 17.

Why Teachers Love It

✨ One predictable routine every day. The consistent four-part structure helps students know what to expect while building independence.

✨ Review multiple ELA skills without overwhelming students. Reading, grammar, word work, vocabulary, and writing are divided into manageable daily practice.

✨ Get 20 days of ready-to-use review. The pacing is already mapped for a smooth first month of third grade.

✨ Build deeper reading comprehension. Students practice main idea, character traits, setting, theme, inference, cause and effect, compare and contrast, author’s purpose, point of view, text features, fact and opinion, text evidence, context clues, and summarizing.

✨ Strengthen grammar and sentence skills. Practice includes sentences and fragments, subjects and predicates, verb tense, adjectives and adverbs, pronouns, possessives, capitalization, commas, quotation marks, conjunctions, compound sentences, contractions, irregular plurals, irregular past-tense verbs, and editing.

✨ Expand vocabulary and word knowledge. Students work with synonyms, antonyms, prefixes, suffixes, context clues, compound words, multiple-meaning words, homophones, root words, shades of meaning, word relationships, similes, and academic vocabulary.

✨ Add hands-on practice with 16 literacy games. Activities include:

• Parts of Speech Sort

• Contraction Match

• Synonym Match

• Roll-an-R-Controlled Word

• Tricky Word BINGO

• Tricky Word Roll & Read

• Vowel Team Sort

• Same & Opposite Match

• Reading Road Race

• Main Idea Baskets

• Fact or Opinion Sort

• Sentence Building Tiles

• Fix-It Cards

• Sequence Cards

• Homophone Match

• Syllable Sort

The Game → Skill Quick Map on page 9 of the Teacher Guide clearly pairs each game with its target skill, including parts of speech, contractions, synonyms, r-controlled vowels, Grade 3 high-frequency words, word fluency, long vowel teams, antonyms, mixed reading and language, main idea and details, fact versus opinion, compound and expanded sentences, editing, sequencing, homophones, and syllables.

✨ Prep once and reuse the games. Print game pages on cardstock, laminate boards and cards, cut reusable pieces apart, and store activities in labeled bags for repeated center use.

✨ Differentiate for varied learning needs. The Teacher Guide includes practical adjustments for below-level readers, on-level learners, above-level students, and multilingual learners.

✨ Support stronger written responses. Daily writing tasks include opinion with reasons, sensory description, sequencing, comparing, dialogue, text-based responses, summaries, personal connections, similes, and reflection.

✨ Monitor progress without adding another formal assessment. The short daily pages can serve as low-stakes formative checks. The Class Record Sheet shown on page 10 of the Teacher Guide provides columns for Weeks 1–4 plus notes, making it easy to track students who are on target and identify skills to revisit.

✨ Save time checking work. The included answer key provides organized responses for all 20 daily lessons.

✨ Support home-school connection. A ready-to-send family letter explains the daily ELA review routine and suggests simple ways caregivers can support literacy at home.

Give your students a confident, structured start to third grade with this 3rd grade back to school ELA review. Download it to review second grade skills, establish a predictable literacy routine, strengthen reading and writing confidence, and keep students engaged with 20 daily lessons plus 16 print-and-play games.

Perfect for teachers searching for third grade morning work, second grade skills review, beginning of year ELA activities, 3rd grade literacy centers, reading comprehension practice, grammar review, vocabulary activities, word study, first month of school activities, formative assessment, or a complete back-to-school literacy review.