Grade 3

Third grade language arts will use the Four Blocks Literacy Model which focuses on guided reading, self-selected reading, working with words and writing. An overview of the Four Blocks Program can be read here. Through guided instruction students will learn a variety of reading and comprehension strategies including: making connections, determining importance, visualizing, inferring, questioning and synthesizing.

This year students will engage in lessons and activities that emphasize phonemic awareness, decoding, choosing appropriate books, reading fluency and comprehension, reading a variety of texts and novel studies.

Each week students will have new grammar topics, spelling and vocabulary words to study to help them improve their writing skills. Students will have opportunities to practice their writing through daily journals, small writing assignments and research projects. Students will also visit the computer lab weekly to increase their understanding and use of technology including: gmail, google drive apps, digital story writing and personal blogs.

The Grade 3 Mathematics program introduces new concepts such as multiplication, adding and subtracting fractions and more complex algorithms and geometric categorizations. Students continue to gain a deep understanding of these concepts so that they may be independently applied in real-life situations. To ensure the most efficient learning, students often work together in groups, engage in peer-tutoring, share their learning and write daily reflections on their progress.

The performance expectations in third grade is that students are able to organize and use data to describe typical weather conditions expected during a particular season. By applying their understanding of weather-related hazards, students are able to make a claim about the merit of a design solution that reduces the impacts of such hazards. Students are expected to develop an understanding of the similarities and differences of organisms’ life cycles. An understanding that organisms have different inherited traits, and that the environment can also affect the traits that an organism develops, is acquired by students at this level. In addition, students are able to construct an explanation using evidence for how the variations in characteristics among individuals of the same species may provide advantages in surviving, finding mates, and reproducing. Students are expected to develop an understanding of types of organisms that lived long ago and also about the nature of their environments. Students are able to determine the effects of balanced and unbalanced forces on the motion of an object and the cause and effect relationships of electric or magnetic interactions between two objects not in contact with each other. In the third grade performance expectations, students are expected to demonstrate grade-appropriate proficiency in asking questions and defining problems; developing and using models, planning and carrying out investigations, analyzing and interpreting data, constructing explanations and designing solutions, engaging in argument from evidence, and obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information. Students are expected to use these practices to demonstrate understanding of the core ideas.

In third grade, students begin to explore more complex concepts and ideas from civics, economics, geography, and history as they study the varied backgrounds of people. There is a strong emphasis on cultures and community. Students examine cultures from their classmates and peers and begin to learn about unity and diversity. They also begin to discuss and understand global issues and the impact that people and cultures can have on the environment and they explore that issue from various perspectives.

Physical Education (P.E.) is an integral part of the education program for all students. P.E. teaches students how their bodies move and how to perform a variety of physical activities. Students learn health-related benefits of regular physical activity and the skills to adopt a physically active, healthy lifestyle. The discipline also provides learning experiences that meet the developmental needs of students. With high-quality physical education instruction, students become confident, independent, self-controlled, and resilient; develop positive social skills; set and strive for personal, achievable goals; learn to assume leadership; cooperate with others; accept responsibility for their own behavior; and, ultimately, improve their academic performance.

Native Speakers

Students in Grade 3 will utilize bopomofo to retrieve information and absorb new knowledge. They will learn how to grasp the main point, the order of speech and be able to respond appropriately during the conversation. They will recognize at least 1,200 Chinese characters and use 700 Chinese characters. In addition to understanding the use of various punctuation marks, they will also grasp the meaning and main concepts of sentences and paragraphs.

Foreign Learners

CFL Grade 3 is targeted at young students with previous exposure to Mandarin. The curriculum is specially designed for children living in non-Chinese speaking families. The materials feature a spiral-up lesson structure that builds upon and applies previous material, so children can learn Chinese naturally--the way they would in a native environment.

Vividly illustrated with a comprehensive selection of sentence patterns, easy-to-read Chinese characters, Pinyin, and colorful pictures, the book introduces young readers to basic Chinese sentences in a daily living environment. Each lesson features sections on vocabulary, exercises, character practice and a reading challenge, along with English translations for each vocabulary word and sentence.

Music

The Grade 3 music course provides students with a sequenced instruction in the elements and skills of music, as well as connections to other disciplines. The music elements include expression, rhythm, form, melody, timbre and texture/harmony. A wide selection of music from different cultures and genres is used to engage students in active music making and help them develop a lifelong appreciation of music.

Computer Science

The course begins with a review of the sequencing, loops, and event. Afterward, students will develop their understanding of algorithms, nested loops, while loops, conditionals, and events. Lessons on digital citizenship are also included. This course is crafted to build a strong foundation of basic concepts before opening up to a wide range of new and exciting topics.

Visual Art

Art is a language and the words of the language are the elements of art. The seven main elements are line, shape, color, value, form, texture, and space. They are organized like verbs using principles of rhythm, balance, emphasis, variety, harmony and unity. Grade 3 art uses practical experiences with thematic topics to develop one’s personal language of art and express it through original works of art. This year the art emphasizes completed compositions and what they communicate. The use of the elements and principles of art provide foundational skills that form the basis of creative experimentation and innovation with practice and experience using them. The NAEA Art Content Standard Areas of create, produce, express and connect are interwoven throughout the units and lessons. Two-dimensional and three-dimensional media are used for developing knowledge about the elements and principles of art using a variety of methods, materials, approaches, and media. Students are encouraged to think about their visual process and their visual thinking, as well as to comment on and think about the art of others, including the art of their peers. Students experience being participants and producers of creative visual art.

Digital Art

This course is intended to introduce students and broaden their creativity using computer technology as a tool. Students will be encouraged to develop their artistic observation, creative expression, history and cultural relevance, critical evaluation, and response by means of a digital environment. The use of computer Art software for the creation of the virtual world and digital imaging will increase the students’ creativity and innovation, communication and collaboration, as well as their critical thinking, problem-solving, decision making and digital citizenship.

The art-making focuses on the elements and principles of art i.e. line, color, shapes, space, form, texture, balance, etc with the comparison of cultural and historic art to the present artworks in order to help the understanding of visual communication.

In this course, Elementary students are exposed to the major digital art software family, which has a general overview of all other software in digital art creation. Adobe Family software has all the capabilities of designing and creation an imaginary digital world. Using this software helps students to be capable of using any other digital creation software that can be around; also students are prepared for the future usage of complex tools in Adobe digital creativity.