3rd Grade · Science · 3-PS2-3
Electricity and Magnetism Lesson Plan for 3rd Grade
A ready-to-teach electricity and magnetism lesson for 3rd Grade. Everything below is classroom-tested structure: an objective, a 45-minute sequence, a way to check who got it, and 3 printable practice pages.
Approximately 45 minutes
Learning objective
- Identify materials that are attracted to magnets and explain why others are not
- Describe how the poles of magnets interact and predict the outcome of placing two magnets near each other
- Give at least two examples of magnets used in everyday tools or technology
Materials
- Magnets
- Electricity
- Contact and non-contact forces
- Pencils, and whiteboard space for the modeled examples
Lesson steps
1. Ask the question (5 min)
Open with a question about electricity and magnetism that students cannot answer yet. Take predictions and record them without correcting anything. Wrong predictions are the point: you will come back to them.
2. Explore (12 min)
Students investigate electricity and magnetism through a hands-on activity, a demonstration, or a set of images. Their job is to notice and describe, not to be right yet.
3. Explain (10 min)
Now give the vocabulary and the explanation for electricity and magnetism. Tie it directly back to what students just observed and to the predictions on the board. Name which predictions held up.
4. Independent practice (you do) (13 min)
Hand out "Magnets". Students record what they learned and answer the questions independently. Circulate and press for "how do you know?"
5. Extend the thinking (5 min)
Ask where else electricity and magnetism shows up outside the classroom. Collect two or three examples and leave the question open for tomorrow.
Check for understanding
Ask students to explain electricity and magnetism to a partner in one sentence, then write that sentence down. Collect the sentences: they show you exactly which part of the idea did not land.
Differentiation
Extra support. Students who stall: pull them into a small group and rebuild electricity and magnetism with concrete materials or a simpler text before asking for the written work again. Do not send the page home as homework, it will just rehearse the misunderstanding.
Extension. Students who finish early: ask them to write their own electricity and magnetism problem for a partner to solve, then check the partner's work. Creating a problem is harder than solving one and it surfaces whether they really understand electricity and magnetism.
Skills covered in this lesson
Magnets · Static electricity · Contact and non-contact forces · Electricity
