Welcome to Third Grade! Every grade level is a new experience for both the student and the parents. The following information should help you better understand what we do in third grade, what is expected of the student, and what parents can do to help.
Language Arts Curriculum:
We have an integrated Language Arts Curriculum. This means that the Language and Spelling activities go along with the reading story.
Literacy:
· Literacy consists of reading, writing, phonics, grammar, penmanship, and spelling.
· Houghton Mifflin Journeys are the two textbooks we will be using. Most reading stories and related activities are designed to last one week. In third grade we will work on improving and developing comprehension, vocabulary, phonics, and critical thinking skills. Students will need to study vocabulary words and practice reading stories at home.
· Guided Reading will also be implemented in our classroom a few days a week. This is a way for me to meet with small groups of students to work on the literacy skills needed for becoming a great reader.
Spelling:
· There will be a variety of spelling lists this year depending on the results of our spelling inventory.The goal is to meet students at their spot on the spelling spectrum.
Grammar:
· Students will review and build on their basic knowledge of sentences, nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. They will be expected to write a variety of sentences using correct capitalization and punctuation.
Penmanship:
· Students will work weekly on their cursive handwriting, learning about 3 new letters every week. Practicing neat, cursive writing at home is strongly encouraged.
Writing:
· Students will practice their writing skills through lessons in our Houghton Mifflin series. It will tie into Six Traits of Writing. This program focuses on six different areas of writing such as Ideas, Voice, Word Choice, Organization, Conventions, and Sentence Fluency. We will practice these skills when writing letters to our 3rd grade penpals in Ohio, in their journals, and during other writing assignments.
Math Curriculum:
· Students should have their basic addition and subtraction facts mastered. These skills will be used as we continue to learn how to solve more difficult problems using addition and subtraction. Place Value, patterns, measurement, multiplication, division, geometry, fractions, data gathering and interpretation, and decimals are topics we will be working with this year.
· With the various skills learned in the Math Connects series, the students will be bringing homework home a few nights a week as a way to connect and practice what they have completed at school to their home environment. Students are encouraged to work together with their parent(s) on these assignments. Parents are asked to guide their child through these activities, however the child should do all of the work on these assignments. This series does have extra help online if you have access.
· We will have an estimation jar in our classroom. The Star Student for the week will get to take the jar home and fill it with uniformly sized objects such as candy, marbles, cereal, etc. your objects will be returned home unless it is a treat in which we will share after we’re finished with the estimation activity.
Science Curriculum:
· In Science students will learn about living things, rocks and minerals, measurement, and sound. As part of the health science curriculum the students participate in the Protective Behaviors and Developmental Guidance programs.
Social Studies Curriculum:
· In Social Studies we begin studying basic map skills and then move onto the five regions of the United States. Our main focus will be learning the fifty states and their post office abbreviations. As we explore the different regions, we will also talk about the geography and resources of each.
