SUMMER READING ASSIGNMENT **for incoming grade 3 students**

SUMMER READING ASSIGNMENT
**for incoming grade 3 students**
Welcome to 3 rd Grade!! To be prepared for the friendship-filled year
ahead, every upcoming third grader will be required to read two books
this summer from the third grade summer reading list that is attached
to this assignment. All of the books listed have a common theme –
FRIENDSHIP!
Assignment:
• Select TWO books from the attached list. Use the levels as a guide.
• Log your reading minutes on the Red Raider Reading Log.
• Select ONE book to complete the writing assignment. The topic of your writing piece is
“Friendship.” You will write how the book‘s theme is proven by writing about why
friendship is its theme. Use the handout attached.
• Your response will be collected and graded for completion during the first week of
school in September.
Your participation in summer reading has its rewards! You will come to third grade prepared
and ready to learn. AND, you will be included in the Summer Reading Celebration this fall!!
But, if you want EVEN more……..
• The Keyport Public Library and our school have partnered with local businesses to offer any
student who finishes FIVE books a prize!! Just bring in your summer reading logs that show
your completion to the Keyport Public Library on Wednesday or Thursday mornings between
10 and 12 or during any Keyport Summer Reading Nights ( July 10 th and August 7 th from 6-8)
and receive your certificate.
• Barnes and Noble will give a FREE book to any student who logs and reads 8 books this
summer! Use the log attached, and when you’re finished, bring it to Barnes and Noble in
Holmdel and select your free book from the options available.
• AND if you’re REALLY motivated (and we hope you are!), sign – up for the Summer Reading
Club by June 30 th at the Keyport Public Library. Then, get your packet on July 1 st and read ten
books by the end of the challenge to attend the Sundae Party in August. Top three readers in
each age group (4-6, 7-10, and 11-13) will also receive a Barnes and Noble gift card!

Name: ______________________
THEME: FRIENDSHIP
This summer I read _____________________________
by _____________________. It was a story about
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
________________________. The theme of the book
was friendship. Friendship was important in the book
because______________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
____________________________________________.
Another part of the book that showed friendship was
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
____________________________________________.

Grade 3 Summer Reading
“Friendship”
Author Title Description Guided
Reading Level
DRA
Level
Kevin Henkes Chester’s Way
Chester and Wilson have their
own way of doing things, and J 18
they do everything together.
When they cut their
sandwiches, it is always
diagonally. When they ride
their bikes, they always use
hand signals. If Chester is
hungry, Wilson is hungry, too.
They are two of a kind, and
that's the way they like it —
until indomitable Lilly, who has
her own way of doing things,
moves into the neighborhood.
Francine Patterson Koko’s Kitten
This is the true story of Koko
the gorilla and her kitten, All K-L 20-24
Ball — how they met, how
Koko loved and cared for All
Ball, and how Koko grieved
when All Ball died.
Ezra Jack Keats A Letter to Amy
Peter wants to invite a special
guest to his birthday party, but L 24
a stormy day may ruin his
surprise.
Steven Kellogg Best Friends Jenny and her city-mouse
friends take to the seas in
search of a more peaceful
place to live. But when they
arrive at what first seems the
island of their dreams, they
have a giant problem to
contend with: the island's only
L 24
Juanita Havill
Deborah Wiles
Jamaica and
Brianna
Freedom Summer
inhabitant, the Skog.
It's wintertime again, and
Jamaica has to wear her
brother Ossie's hand-me-down
boots. She finds herself
envious of her friend Brianna's
pink boots with the fuzzy cuffs,
and Brianna teases her about
her ugly, old "boy" boots. But
one word brings reconciliation
for the two friends.
This stirring account of the
"Freedom Summer" that
followed the passage of the
Civil Rights Act of 1964
L 24
M 28

A. M. Monson Wanted: Best
Friend
Paula Danziger
Eleanor Estes
Jose Aruego
Amber Brown Is
Not a Crayon
The Hundred
Dresses
Weird Friends:
Unlikely Allies in
the Animal
Kingdom
powerfully and poignantly
captures two boys' experience
with racism and their
friendship that defies it.
Cat and Mouse are the best of
friends. But Cat wants to play
checkers and Mouse wants to
play cards and since the two
can't agree, Mouse goes home.
So Cat puts an ad in The Hollow
Log Gazette for a best friend
he can play with. In no time at
all, prospective applicants are
knocking at Cat's door.
Amber Brown and Justin
Daniels are best friends. They
sit next to each other in school,
help each other with fractions
and spelling, and always stick
up for one another. But when
Justin finds out that he is
moving away, everything
begins to change.
In this Newbery Honor Book, a
young girl comes to terms with
the effect that the teasing of
her friends has had on a shy
classmate.
In the animal kingdom, you just
can't predict who will be
friends with whom. One type
of bird baby-sits for newborn
crocodiles; there is a beetle
that cleans a mouse's house;
and a certain fish leads blind
shrimp through underwater
traffic. In a world full of
predators, the most unlikely
creatures form alliances to
help each other survive.
M 28
N 30
O 34
P 38