Grade 3 · Week 12verb tenses
The Class Garden Harvest
Students read a short narrative about a class garden harvest and answer five questions identifying, rewriting, and forming past, present, future, and perfect verb tenses, supported by teacher and homeschool guidance.
On screen - your kid, alone
- 1Day 1 - Meet the story
- 2Day 2 - Word work
- 3Day 3 - What it means
- 4Day 4 - Fix & re-read
- 5Day 5 - Show what you know
Offline - with you
Print the pages for offline work together; the answer key is for you.
Start by reading the passage aloud together, then tell your child, "This story uses four time frames: things that already happened, things happening now, things that will happen later, and things that were finished before another time. Let's find examples of each." Good answers will sort verbs correctly: planted and watered as past, pick and twists as present, will cook and will bring as future, and had grown or have learned as perfect tenses showing one action finished before another. For the rewriting and fill-in questions, listen for the right helping verb (has, have, had, will have) paired with the correct main verb form, especially with irregulars like grew/grown and ate/eaten. If your child gets stuck, point to a time clue in the sentence such as "yesterday," "today," or "by next week," and ask which tense matches that clue. You can also act out a verb together in three time frames — "I planted, I plant, I will plant" — to make the pattern feel natural before returning to the harder perfect tenses. Keep the tone playful; mistakes with verb tenses are normal at grade 3 and improve quickly with practice.
The Class Garden Harvest
Last spring, Mr. Alvarez's third grade class planted a garden behind the school. We dug holes, dropped in tiny seeds, and watered the soil every afternoon. Sara planted carrots, while Jamal and I planted bright green peppers. For weeks, we waited and watched, hoping for the first sprout. By June, our seeds had grown into strong young plants with thick leaves. Today is harvest day, and the vegetables have grown bigger than anyone expected. I pick a fat red tomato and place it gently in my basket. Sara pulls orange carrots from the dirt, and Jamal twists ripe peppers off their stems. The whole class works together, laughing and comparing what we find. Mr. Alvarez smiles because we have learned so much since April. He reminds us that good gardeners observe their plants carefully and stay patient. Last year's class grew pumpkins, but they had never tried peppers before us. Tomorrow, we will cook a special lunch with everything we harvested. Mr. Alvarez will bring a giant pot, and parents will help us chop vegetables safely. We will make a vegetable soup and fresh salsa for tortilla chips. Sara will write the recipe cards, and Jamal will design the menu. By the end of the day, we will have finished our biggest garden project yet. I have eaten many lunches at school, but none will taste like this one. Next spring, our class will plant even more vegetables in the schoolyard. We have discovered that hard work, sunshine, and time can grow something wonderful from a few small seeds.
What this lesson checks
- Grammar usage: Look at this sentence from the passage: "By the end of the day, we _____ our biggest garden project yet." Which verb form correctly completes the sentence in the future perfect tense?
- Grammar usage: The sentence below uses the wrong verb tense. The word 'Tomorrow' tells us the action happens in the future. Rewrite the sentence so the verb is in the future tense. Tomorrow, we cooked a special lunch with everything we harvested.
- Grammar usage: Which sentence correctly uses the past perfect tense to show an action that happened before another past action?
- Grammar usage: Read this sentence from the passage: "By June, our seeds _____ into strong young plants with thick leaves." Which verb form correctly completes the sentence using the past perfect tense?
- Grammar usage: The sentence below mixes up verb tenses. The word 'Today' tells us the action is happening now, but the verb is in the past tense. Rewrite the sentence so the verb is in the simple present tense. Then explain in 2-4 sentences how you knew which tense to use, using clues from the passage. Today, Sara pulled orange carrots from the dirt.