What a Program Does is a Grade 3 Computer Science worksheet resource focused on programming fundamentals and the everyday ways programs use instructions, commands, input, and output to perform tasks.

Students explore how a program is a set of steps that tells a computer what to do, how commands provide actions for a computer to follow, and why the sequence of instructions matters. Familiar examples from games, apps, and classroom technology help connect programming ideas to situations students already recognize.

What Students Practice

• Identifying programs, instructions, commands, input, and output
• Distinguishing user input from computer output
• Explaining how ordered instructions help a computer complete a task
• Connecting programming concepts to games and classroom technology
• Predicting how changing the order of instructions can affect a result

The worksheet includes a guided dialogue, matching activity, cloze passage, labeled diagram, reading passage, multiple-choice questions, true-or-false statements, short-answer questions, and an extended-response task. Students apply vocabulary and concepts across different response formats rather than simply recalling definitions.

Teacher Support Included

A separate Teacher Guide PDF is included with learning objectives, teaching tips, discussion questions, and common mistakes. These notes provide practical support for introducing programming vocabulary, guiding classroom discussion, and addressing likely misconceptions about how computer programs work.

Classroom Use

Use this programming fundamentals worksheet as guided practice during a Computer Science lesson, independent work after instruction, review of core programming vocabulary, or a written check of students' understanding. The reading and questions can also support discussion about how a button click or key press becomes input, how a program processes instructions, and how the computer produces a visible result.

With examples involving a game character moving, a classroom app displaying a message, and familiar technologies such as slideshows and calculators, the resource gives Grade 3 learners a concrete introduction to the relationship between instructions, input, commands, sequence, and output.