Third Grade

List of 6 items.

• ELA

  The third grade curriculum includes reading, writing, spelling, and grammar lessons.  We also complete a cursive handwriting book which builds on the foundations of cursive learned in second grade.

   

  Reading instruction consists of various texts, including a selection of novels, an author study of Chris van Allsburg, poetry, and fairytales and their elements.  Students will work on writing complete paragraphs through narrative, expository, and persuasive writing projects.  Grammar study focuses heavily on the eight parts of speech, as well as proper writing conventions.  Word Study groups are organized for spelling instruction based on students’ readiness levels.  

   

  Activities through the year will consist of book reports, a biography project, a poetry book, and an original fairy tale.  

• Math

  The Lower School math program follows the tenets of the Singapore Math method where there is a focus on mastery achieved through intentional sequencing of concepts.  Students learn to think mathematically as problem solvers via their depth of knowledge gained from previous lessons.  Key features of the approach include the CPA (Concrete, Pictorial, Abstract). 

   

  Skills focused on during the third grade year include place value, addition and subtraction with regrouping, multiplication and division concepts, fractions, measurement, geometry, graphing and data analysis. All skills are applied within word problems and spiraled daily.

   

  After each unit of study, math groups will collaborate on a hands-on project which will  require them to utilize skills studied in that unit.  Instruction is presented in a variety of ways, including the use of manipulatives, technology, and center work.

• Social Studies

  In Social Studies, students have access to both a textbook and an online digital copy.
  
  

  Through using the Impact Social Studies Curriculum entitled “Our Communities,” third graders will learn and discover information about our world and its communities through essential questions such as:

  • Why does It matter where we live?
  • What is our relationship with our environment?
  • What makes a community unique?
  • Why do governments and citizens need each other?
  • How do people in a community meet their wants and needs?

  As we delve into these questions, we will also be utilizing timelines and polishing our map skills. There will be 2-3 class projects throughout the course of the year.  Students will be exposed to short assessments, which will allow them to learn and develop study skills and test-taking strategies.

• Science

  Students use the Amplify Science curriculum that blends hands-on activities, literacy, and digital tools to develop skills that help them think and argue like real scientists. 

   

  Units include:

  • Balancing Forces, in which students explore forces as they learn about a floating train and discover the forces that act on and around us every day. Students must take on the role of an engineer and learn how the train works so they can create a scientific argument to convince a fictional community to build this train in their neighborhood.
  • Inheritance and Traits, where students become wildlife biologists to study animals and discover why organisms have certain traits and how some traits are inherited and how the environment plays a role in determining variations.
  • Environments and survival continues our look into animals and the environment, but this time we take on the role as biomimicry engineers to look at what traits animals have and how we can learn from them to create technology that helps society.
  • Our final unit is a study on weather and climate. In this unit students take on the role of a meteorologist as they look at data and patterns to decide which island is best suited for the given animal. 
    
    

  In each unit students are using critical thinking skills to write scientific arguments, conduct experiments and develop skills all scientists need to succeed. 

• World Language

  In third grade, students continue in the program taken up in second grade that immerses them in a world of the language they are studying. This year is important because they begin to focus on all aspects of learning: reading, writing, listening and speaking to prepare them for fourth grade classes. They explore a multidisciplinary foreign language classroom which centers on fun as its main goal. Inspiration and self confidence in the language are the main focuses this year.

• Religion

  Church community, prayer, and scripture are taught with a special emphasis on the Mass and how it incorporates all of these concepts within its framework.