Аннотация: The article presents a study aimed at identifying opportunities for improving planning skills in primary school, in particular among 3rd grade students, in order to achieve the required result when solving problems. A total of 101 subjects participated in the study (52 experimental group, 49 control group). With the subjects of the experimental group, 32 extracurricular lessons were conducted (once a week) based on the material of spatial-combinatorial problems of non-educational content included in the author’s “Distribution” program. Diagnostics of planning at the end of the school year made it possible to establish that the subjects of the experimental group were significantly superior to the subjects of the control group in terms of success in solving planning problems. In future studies, it is planned to conduct a similar study with students in grades 2 and 4.