Literacy is the primary focus of the third grade curriculum. When students learn good reading and writing strategies they open the door to a world of knowledge.

We will focus our reading studies on building strategies and strengthening vocabulary for comprehending a variety of texts. Integrating Science and Social Studies into the literacy program will broaden a students understanding of, not only of educational material, but of different writing purposes. Students will actively read different texts (i.e. informational, expository, narrative, descriptive, stories, and poetry) and come to understand their purposes and uses in their everyday lives. 

For writing, students will engage in a Writer’s Workshop to enhance their understanding and use of the writing process (brainstorm, outline or web, rough draft, edit and final draft). Students will strengthen their abilities to write various types of text (persuasive, expository, narrative, story, etc.). Students will use the 6 Traits of Writing (Ideas, Organization, Voice, Word Choice, Sentence Fluency, and Conventions) as a rubric for creating strong writing pieces.  Through Writer’s Workshop and Reading and Writing Centers, students will strengthen their vocabulary, grammar, and spelling skills.

We will explore Math using a variety of manipulators and materials. We will use graphic organizers to work out and understand math problems. Students will learn to “Write for Math” and make regular entries in their Math journals. Regular assessments and practice will help the students develop speed and accuracy in solving math problems. We focus on multiplication and division, but we will revisit and practice our addition and subtraction facts. Our math program includes Geometry, fractions, money concepts, time and measurements. We will also practice analyzing and solving word problems.

The main objective of the Science curriculum is to maintain the natural curiosity of the world and enhance other characteristics and attitudes of scientists (critical-thinking, open-mindedness, inventiveness, responsibility, cooperation and honesty.) Students will participate in the scientific process and come to understand its significance. They will explore the natural world to understand general concepts of change, cause and effect, cycle, patterns, symmetry, etc. Students should understand and see the importance of science and use it in their everyday lives.

As stated before, Social Studies will be connected with the Language Arts curriculum. However, the main goal of Social Studies is to show students how to be a responsible citizen. To do this, students will begin the year with a study on community. They will start with their community and then expand to learn about other communities, and later in the year, culture. They will learn more about their role in a community and how decisions can have an impact on society. They will even explore communities from the past and how the decisions shaped the society we live in today. Students will study Geography and how one’s environment can affect ones lifestyle.