3rd Grade Math Early Finisher Packet: 30 Activities

In any 3rd grade class some students finish a practice page well before the rest. They need something to do that is still math and that they can start without asking.

This is an early finisher packet 3rd grade students can work through alone: thirty activities, one per page, on the year's core skills. A student who is done takes a page, works it alone, and takes the next one.

What is in the packet

• 39 pages, thirty activities. One activity per page, so a student can pick one up and finish it in a single sitting.
• Twelve kinds of activity. The thirty pages repeat twelve formats, the same twelve used in the 4th and 5th grade packets, pitched at 3rd grade numbers.
• The year's main skills. Facts within 100, addition and subtraction within 1,000, rounding, equivalent fractions, and two-step problems.
• No prep, answer keys included. Print, put the pages in a folder, and check finished work against the keys.

The packet is $6.95 on Teachers Pay Teachers.

Sample activities

Five skills run through the packet. Here is what each one gives a 3rd grader who is done early.

Facts within 100

Fact pages give a student who finishes early more practice with the facts, one page at a time.

Addition and subtraction within 1,000

Adding and subtracting within 1,000 with regrouping is where most errors happen, and practicing the same skill in a different format helps a student catch them.

Rounding

Rounding to the nearest ten and hundred is easy to get backwards. Short, repeated practice helps, and the rounding pages give a student that practice.

Equivalent fractions

Fractions are new in 3rd grade. Pages on equivalent fractions give a student more time with the idea before 4th grade builds on it.

Two-step problems

Two-step word problems ask a student to decide what to do before doing it, then do both steps and check that the answer fits the question.

Early finisher math activities 3rd grade

Search for early finisher activities 3rd grade math and most of what comes back is a list of ideas: a choice board, task cards, a math game on the back table. They work when they are set up. What a 3rd grade room needs day to day is simpler: early finisher worksheets 3rd grade students can start without asking, that count as practice, and that take a minute to check.

A folder of one-page activities does that, and the routine is short:

• Finished work goes in the tray first.
• Then the student takes the next page from the early finisher folder.
• Finished early finisher pages go in the same tray, and you check them against the keys when you have a minute.

Teach the routine once, in the first week you use it, and after that the folder runs itself. The math early finishers page covers the same routine for every grade from kindergarten to 5th, and the 4th grade early finisher packet is the next step up for a student who is ready for bigger numbers. On the days you are out, the 3rd grade math sub plans end each day with an early finisher page of their own.

3rd-5th bundle

The 3rd-5th bundle is 117 pages: ninety one-page activities, thirty per grade for 3rd, 4th, and 5th, with the same twelve kinds of activity in every folder. It is $14.95, against $20.85 for the three grades bought separately.

It suits a team that shares students, a resource room, or a 3rd grade class with a student who is well ahead: that student can move on to 4th grade pages in formats they already know.