Our Grade 3 Literacy Program helps students grow into independent, strategic, and confident readers who engage deeply with texts. Grounded in the Science of Reading, our instruction supports students’ development of both word recognition (decoding and fluency) and language comprehension (vocabulary, background knowledge, syntax, and discourse). Students learn to read accurately and fluently while building the skills to understand increasingly complex texts. Each unit integrates systematic instruction in decoding and fluency, vocabulary building, comprehension strategies, and higher-level thinking. Students engage in rich discussions, develop background knowledge, and learn how to monitor their own reading to solve problems and build stamina.
Additionally, our Literacy Program empowers students to become confident, skilled, and purposeful writers across a variety of genres. Rooted in the Science of Reading and Writing, our approach emphasizes the strong connection between reading and writing, ensuring that students learn to generate ideas, organize information, and use language effectively to communicate with an audience. Throughout the year, students develop foundational writing skills including phonics knowledge for spelling, sentence structure, grammar conventions, and the use of precise vocabulary—all essential for conveying meaning clearly and accurately. Students also learn how to revise and edit their own work, building metacognitive awareness and taking ownership of their writing process.
The year is organized into five engaging units:
Unit 1: Exploring Behaviors of Readers
In this unit, students explore behaviors to support independent and partner reading and self-monitoring strategies to support reading comprehension. Students improve their note-taking skills as they engage with a variety of texts. Finally, students continue developing sentence-level and connected writing skills.
Unit 2: Defining Identity
In this unit, students explore the concept of identity and what makes each person unique. They learn the importance of understanding others and not making judgments based on identity or actions. Through reading, discussion, and writing, students dive deeply into characters and develop their own skills as readers, writers, and thinkers. The unit culminates in a narrative writing project where students share an experience that helped shape who they are.
Unit 3: Reading and Writing to Learn
In this unit, students become weather and climate experts, reading a range of nonfiction texts to discover how weather shapes our world. Through shared reading experiences, they learn to ask thoughtful questions, identify key ideas, and use text features to gather information. Students communicate their findings through clear and informative writing, making connections to weather in their own countries and communities.
Unit 4: Embracing Differences
In this unit, students read fiction texts to explore themes of acceptance, tolerance, and self-discovery. Through these texts, students examine issues like bullying, the impact of others on our self-image, and the importance of forgiveness. The unit emphasizes identifying and tracing central messages, analyzing character development, and understanding how different parts of a text build meaning. Students further develop their skills in literary analysis, opinion writing, and narrative writing, especially focusing on a narrative story.
Unit 5: Researching Kingdoms
In this unit, students research how living things interact with their environments and what they need to survive. They examine life cycles, traits, and how adaptations help different species thrive or struggle in various habitats. Throughout the unit, students learn to use text and graphic features to find and understand scientific information. They practice building on each other's ideas through discussion and questioning. Daily writing tasks and structured paragraphs help them strengthen their opinion writing skills.
Throughout the year, students engage in systematic vocabulary instruction, develop fluency through repeated reading and phrasing practice, and receive explicit instruction in comprehension strategies such as predicting, retelling, questioning, and summarizing. By connecting reading, writing, speaking, and listening, we ensure students are well-prepared to tackle the increasingly complex texts they will encounter in Grade 3 and beyond.
Additionally, we integrate the Science of Writing by teaching students how to move through the writing process: planning, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. We emphasize sentence construction, cohesion, and transitions to support their ability to write with fluency and clarity. Writing is treated as a process of thinking, helping students develop strong communication skills that they will use across disciplines and throughout their lives.
Grade 3 Mathematics solidifies and builds upon the foundation of mathematical thinking and understanding that has been cultivated in prior grades. In a balanced instructional program, the students develop as problem solvers, practicing computational skills and procedures as well as constructing understanding of concepts. Third-grade students deepen their understanding of place value and their knowledge of and skill with addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of whole numbers. Students develop an understanding of fractions as numbers, concepts of area and perimeter of plane figures, and attributes of various shapes. Learning experiences are designed to cultivate curiosity, promote purposeful collaboration, and introduce the language and mindsets of mathematicians. The Mathematical Practice Standards apply throughout each unit and, together with the content standards, prescribe that students experience mathematics as a coherent, useful, and logical subject that makes use of their ability to make sense of problem situations.
Represent and solve problems involving multiplication and division.
Understand properties of multiplication and the relationship between multiplication and division.
Multiply and divide within 100.
Solve problems involving the four operations, and identify and explain patterns in arithmetic.
Use place value understanding and properties of operations to perform multi-digit arithmetic.
Develop understanding of fractions as numbers.
Solve problems involving measurement and estimation of intervals of time, liquid volumes, and masses of objects.
Represent and interpret data.
Geometric measurement: understand concepts of area and relate area to multiplication and to addition.
Geometric measurement: recognize perimeter as an attribute of plane figures and distinguish between linear and area measures.
Reason with shapes and their attributes.
Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
Model with mathematics.
Use appropriate tools strategically.
Attend to precision.
Look for and make use of structure.
Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.
Grade 3 Inquiry units are designed to offer students authentic experiences where they generate questions and tackle complex issues, as individuals and teams. Social Studies based units are aligned to the American Education Reaches Out (AERO) standards, and they address concepts of identity, citizenship, leadership, and governance. Throughout the year, students will research and discuss the role of citizens in a community, different government services, and how they can make a positive impact in their communities.
Science phenomenon-based units are aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). In Grade 3, students engage in a study of movement and the interaction of objects, investigate weather and climate, and explore inheritance and variation of traits in organisms.
In all units, students develop conceptual understanding around core ideas and practice the skills of the disciplines, including:
Develop Questions and Plan Inquiries
Evaluate the Credibility of the Sources and Relevance of the Information to the Inquiry
Construct Coherent, Reasoned Arguments and Explanations
Communicate Conclusions From an Inquiry
Take Informed Action for the Common Good
Asking Questions and Defining Problems
Developing and Using Models
Planning and Carrying out Investigations
Analyzing and Interpreting Data
Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking
Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions
Engaging in Argument from Evidence
Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information