Curriculum
Reading:
In third grade, we still focus on the five elements of reading: fluency, phonics, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, and comprehension. Third grade is a major transition year. Students will start to solidify concrete concepts and foundational skills; however, they will continue to build on those skills as they progress to 4th and 5th grade. Overall, third graders will learn how to determine key details, main ideas, and themes in text. We will begin to make inferences, which will be a significant skill in the upper elementary grades. In addition, they will apply the necessary skills to understand the author's purpose, plot, point of view, and begin to understand and analyze characters. Students will also be expected to identify story elements within a text. In class, we will be reading a variety of genres, including: adventure, sci-fi, mystery, historical fiction, realistic fiction, biographies, poetry, autobiographies, nonfiction, and fantasy. Students will be encouraged to read many different types of books and genres throughout the year, in the classroom and at home. Much of our vocabulary focus will be on prefixes, suffixes, and identifying unknown words using context clues. Although this is a large focus, we will continue to strengthen foundational reading skills. Lastly, we will bridge the reading/writing connection by writing about what we read, and often. Although we are learning quite a lot this year in reading, my primary goal is to instill a love for reading!
We will continue to implement our new literacy curriculum, Into Reading! This curriculum has it all: every aspect of the content standards are covered and reviewed with authentic and engaging texts; foundational skills and vocabulary are embedded throughout instruction; enrichment is provided; writing instruction aligns with reading content.
Writing:
This year, students will write poetry, opinion, narrative, and informational pieces. I do my best to integrate writing with other content areas, especially social studies. For example, students may write an informational piece on a region of their choice. Similar to their past educational experience, students will be expected to plan, write a rough draft, and a final copy. They will also need to edit and revise their rough drafts before writing their final copies. This usually entails adding, moving, or removing detail, as well as correcting grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
Math:
Similar to reading and writing, students will be accessing prior knowledge to fine tune and enhance their math skills. This year our math focus will be on the following:
-learn to add and subtract multi-digit numbers
-represent and solve problems using multiplication and division
-multiply and divide within 100
-use the four operations
-understand fractions as numbers
-begin to recognize equivalent fractions
-identifying equivalent fractions
-understanding place value and rounding
-analyze patterns
-make line plots and graph data points
-identify geometrical shapes using their attributes to classify and organize them
Similar to previous grades, we will implement Bridges as our math curriculum. Homework will be assigned as we work through the various topics.
Science:
Students will learn about motion and force, weather patterns and natural disasters, and various life systems (i.e., organisms, habitats, ecosystems, etc.). We will alternate our science learning with social studies.
Social Studies:
Our social studies focus will be a great time for what's coming in 4th grade (i.e., Colorado history!). This year, students will learn about primary and secondary resources, significant individuals and their impact on the present, how to use maps and identify regions. They will also discover economic processes, like producers and consumers, and begin to learn the basics of civics (i.e., origins and functions of local government). As aforementioned, this will be a tremendous year to prepare students for upcoming concepts in 4th and 5th grades.