Welcome to Third Grade! This year is an exciting transition from lower elementary to upper elementary school. Children mature and show responsibility for their learning. Students work more independently and develop study skills for the upper grades. Students frequently work collaboratively in groups to learn from one another. This will be the first year that students will be taking SOL (Standards of Learning) tests in both math and reading.

We teach reading strategies including summarizing, sequencing, and inferencing. Students participate in small reading groups based on their reading levels,and also have more independent reading time. Students participate in class read-alouds which model and focus on specific strategies. Students are placed in word study groups based on an assessment which determines their strengths and weaknesses in word study. In writing, students will practice composing expository, narrative, and descriptive paragraphs while strengthening skills in the editing and revision  process.

Math becomes more challenging in third grade as students work with larger numbers and solve multi-step word problems. Students will learn a variety of math strategies to assist in solving addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division problems. Other skills learned this year include place value, comparing numbers, rounding, patterns, graphing, time, money, geometry, fractions, measurement, and probability.

Our students will explore concepts of scientific investigation, life processes and living systems, energy, matter, and cycles of nature. They will have the exciting opportunity to participate in our PBL (Project Based Learning) on Simple Machines.

Social Studies lessons begin to expand students’ view of the world. They learn about our government, geography of North and South America, diversity in our country, and economics. We study many ancient civilizations including Egypt, China, Greece, Rome, and Mali.

To showcase students’ learning in Science and Social Studies, we will be maintaining a portfolio of their individual work throughout the year in each unit.