Reading, Writing and Spelling

The third grade curriculum builds on and further extends what has been covered in second grade. We will use Daily Oral Language, the Harcourt Language Arts series, Cast-A-Spell, Mathland and D'Nealian cursive writing, as well as studying specific Social Studies and Science topics. The children will be reading individually and during Guided Reading.

Reading is woven throughout almost every aspect of the curriculum. The main focus of reading in third grade is on comprehension. Specific strategies are taught to enhance this skill. These include identifying the main idea, recognizing cause and effect, drawing inferences, comparing and contrasting information and synthesizing information. The children will be reading many genres … fiction, non-fiction, poetry, plays, etc. Students will:

• Distinguish fact from opinion
• Distinguish fantasy from reality
• Identify story elements: character, setting, plot, conflict and sequence
• Identify rhythm, rhyme and alliteration
• Identify and understand metaphor and simile
• Recognize point of view
• Understand use of dialogue in text
• Recognize descriptive language and imagery

We will also be reading literature that relates to the third grade Social Studies and Science curriculum.

In Language Arts this year the children will be reaching further into grammar and language usage. Examples of this would be identifying simple and complete subjects, nouns, combining sentences, verbs in predicates, common and proper nouns, singular and plural possessive nouns, verbs, tenses, pronouns, adverbs, etc. They will write personal narratives, a how-to-essay, use persuasive writing, a friendly letter, book reviews, poetry and research reports.

At the end of third grade the children are expected to write a paragraph that shows pre-writing strategies, uses compound sentences, elaborate details and conventional spelling. The piece must have a clear topic, be organized to include beginning, middle and ending sentences that logically relate to the subject and be edited for G.U.M. (D.O.L.) editing.

The D.O.L. (Daily Oral Language) for third grade reviews and reinforces basic skills in the areas of spelling, capitalization, punctuation, grammar and usage. In addition, the program gives students repeated opportunities to develop and practice oral language and proofreading skills.

The students receive direct instruction in spelling three times a week using the Cast-A-Spell Program. They learn how to hear "chunks" in words and how to say words to assist spelling. Third grade students learn to spell high-frequency words that are referred to as muscle words. They will be expected to spell 100% of the high frequency and "hard word list". They will learn the prefixes – dis, re, uni, be, tri, un, sub, super and be. They will also be taught endings – er, ing, y, ly, ic, ed, d, es, ble, all, ist, changing y to I, double consonants and word chunks – phobia, ology, ous, ose, monu, omy, esque, ance, ence, ancy, ier, yer and graphy.

The children will write letters of the alphabet (upper and lower case) in cursive, writing clearly and legibly with adequate spacing.

Third graders will conduct experiments, use scientific questioning, predicting and hypothesizing results. Our science topics this year include: rocks and minerals and weather forecasts with a particular emphasis on storm systems. The students will be introduced to the classification of living things (kingdoms) and study the digestive system.

The students will learn about the early exploration of North America, the Westward Movement and will be doing work with all types of maps, global and regional.

In third grade all of the Mathland projects revolve around the central theme of "connections". At this level students are developing the ability to see the major ideas in mathematics and weave them together to make even bigger discoveries for themselves. The early work in number relations is with addition and subtraction. As the year progresses, students work to extend the connections they have been building to include the relationships between addition and multiplication and between multiplication and division. The following is a list of concept and skills that third graders will achieve:

Data Analysis: Statistics and Probability

• Read and use data to predict patterns of outcome
• Conduct a survey
• Use maps to explore networks and to solve problems
• Decide whether a game is fair
• Make a plan to collect, record and interpret data
• Use tally marks to collect, organize and describe data

Algebraic Thinking

• Identify and extend geometric and numerical patterns
• Understand fact families
• Write an equation that represents a problem
• Skip count and recognize the pattern for multiplication
• Understand relationship between operations

Geometry and Measurement

• Determine elapsed time
• Compute with time
• Tell time to the nearest minute
• Use a calendar to solve problems
• Know the value of coins and compute with money
• Compute and compare measurements
• Sort by attributes
• Explore the concept of linear and distance measurement
• Explore area
• Find, explain and compare area and perimeter of shapes
• Explore the relationship between addition and perimeter and multiplication and area
• Identify properties of 2 and 3 dimensional shapes
• Describe and draw lines of symmetry

Number Sense

• Use appropriate math vocabulary
• Estimate to solve problems
• Know basic facts and computation algorithms
• Read, write and identify place value
• Count, compare and order whole numbers and fractions
• Use mental math
• Use multiple strategies to solve problems
• Understand odd and even numbers
• Write and solve a story problem involving operations
• Use a calculator in appropriate situations
• Recognize the patterns and relationship between decimal numbers and money
• Explore division
• Identify and compare fractional parts: 1/2, 1/4, 1/3 and 1/6
• Round to solve problems
• Explore equivalent fractions and operations

Third graders are expected to memorize and be fluent in addition and subtraction facts to 18 and multiplication facts through 5. At the end of third grade the students are expected to do 30 addition facts correctly in 2 minutes. The same holds true for subtraction facts to 18. These are referred to as "Mad Minutes".

Social Development

• Self-esteem
• Peer relationships
• Communication with adults
• Individual and team problem solving activities

Physical Development

• Fitness tests assessed from past year
• Muscle contractions
• Muscle strengthening
• Muscle flexibility
• Soccer
• Elementary team games
• Volleyball
• Circus and juggling
• Basketball
• Tumbling and gymnastics
• Nutrition and food pyramid
• Cleanliness and minor first aid
• Elementary combat games
• Handball
• Wiffleball and lead-up to softball activities
• Orienteering
• Reassessed fitness from current year
• Track and field
• Team games

The art program will consist of a spiraling curriculum. Each lesson/project will build on the previous one. It will reflect the Vermont Standards and be based on the elements and principles of design, incorporating art history, aesthetics and art criticism with projects appropriate to each grade level. A wide variety of media and techniques will be used. All activities will be structured to accommodate different learning styles and paces. Art education will be available for all students.

The art program includes content from the four foundational art disciplines known as Discipline Based Art Education:

• Art history – art in a cultural or historical setting
• Art production – the concepts and skills used to make art
• Aesthetics – the philosophy or nature and value of art
• Art criticism – making judgments and analyzing art objectively.

Assessments will be conducted on a regular basis. Assessments will be teacher assessments in the form of grades, mid-term reports, report cards and oral critique. By the end of the school year students should be able to demonstrate understanding of:

• Balance, movement, contrast and composition
• The color wheel – warm and cool colors and positive and negative space
• Landscape, still life and collage
• 3-D clay construction – masks
• Observational drawing, printmaking and perspective
• Linking art and literature – Eric Carle
• Artistic problem solving, abstract art – Mondrian and the work of Henri Matisse

Third grade students progress in the knowledge and use of computer programs, specifically in facets of multimedia, ie. PowerPoint and web pages.

Basic Operations

• Typing
• Moving information (cut, copy and paste)

Information Tools

• Data manipulation (spreadsheet, data base and graphing)

Social/Ethical Use and Practices

• Copyright

Research

• Encyclopedia
• Online searching

Problem Solving

• Spreadsheet as a problem solving tool

Advanced Computing

• Hardware and maintenance

Sample Activities

• Start touch typing
• Introduce copy and paste
• Google search fir images

In the Library Media Program the two main focuses are to encourage the students to have a love for reading and to teach them to be information literate. To be information literate means to be able to access, evaluate and use information efficiently and effectively. The Library Media Program operates on a flexible schedule. This allows the library media specialist to collaborate with the classroom teachers so that these skills are taught as the students need to use them for their classroom assignments instead of in isolation.

The students will:

• Begin using a more advanced research model
• Be able to find a book by its call number
• Be able to find information using the print and online encyclopedias
• Understand how to use a dictionary
• Learn to efficiently find information using an almanac, atlas and the Internet

Life-Long Reading

• The students will:
• Learn to identify different types of stories – tall tales, fairytales and folk tales
• Learn to identify different kinds of literature genres such as mysteries, adventure and biographies
• Recommend books to others

The students will:

• Be able to find a book using the online catalog by keyword
• Be able to create a multi-media presentation
• Be able to run an efficient search on the Internet

The student will:

• Be able to evaluate web sites as being relevant to their topic
• Understand the difference between appropriate and inappropriate web sites
• Understand the Acceptable Use Policy of the school