Lucy Calkins Reading Workshop- We use the Lucy Calkins reading workshop as our reading curriculum. This program focuses on improving reading skills for both literature and nonfiction texts. While reading literature, students will work on word solving, vocabulary development, envisioning, and prediction. While reading nonfiction, students will work on identifying main idea and details, recognizing text structure, comparing texts, and thinking critically about the text.
Fountas and Pinnell Assessments – We use this system to assess current reading levels/growth throughout the year. Students read a passage out loud to the teacher, and then a brief discussion about the passage is conducted to assess the student's fluency and comprehension.
Homework – students read developmentally appropriate self-selected materials, should be reading 20 minutes EACH night (weekends included).
Writing (Lucy Calkins) - We use the Lucy Calkins writing workshop as our writing curriculum. This series focuses on process writing with emphasis on narrative, persuasive, and expository writing. Each writing lesson consists of a 10-15 minute mini-lesson on a specific writing strategy followed by student application of the strategy and teacher conferences with students.
Cursive Writing – We use the Handwriting without Tears program to introduce cursive handwriting.
We use the Eureka Math program.
Topics covered: Meanings and relationships between multiplication and division, place value with units of measure, rounding to the nearest ten and hundred, collecting and displaying data, geometry- area, perimeter, compare and order fractions using models and number lines.
Basic facts – multiplication facts will be reviewed daily, strong fact fluency allows for a deeper development of other math skills.
Homework – math homework is assigned to revisit, practice, and enrich concepts and to practice further at home.
We use the Mystery Science curriculum for Science in Third Grade. The major topics that we will cover this year are "Fossils and Changing Environments", "Life Cycles", "Heredity, Survival, and Selection", "Weather and Climate", and "Forces, Motion, and Magnets".
In third grade, students will study civics and government, economics, and history including Native Americans, and Colonial America.