Fasten your seatbelt and prepare to enter the realm of the third grade curriculum!

Reading

In third grade we use all the strategies students have been using to learn to read, and we use them to start reading to learn!  We use many different fiction and nonfiction texts throughout the year, some from the Expeditionary Learning curriculum and other great mentor texts.  This year we really focus on summarizing text and finding the main idea and supporting details.  

Writing

Our third graders spend time learning to write different genres: narratives, information paragraphs, descriptive writing, and opinion writing.  We focus on adding details to our work and using great word choice.  We learn the difference between revising and editing, and we practice it with each writing we do.

Discovery and problem solving is key for third grade math.  We use manipulatives, games, and songs to go from concrete to abstract thinking.  We solve problems in multiple ways and we share our thinking in words, pictures, and numbers!  Concepts include place value, computation, geometry, multiplication and division, fractions, time, money, and measurement.

In science, we integrate the skills of scientific investigation, reasoning, and logic throughout all aspects of the curriculum. As we investigate simple and compound machines, energy, and matter, we gain a deeper understanding of physical science. We discover the wonders of the natural world as we explore animal adaptations, environments, resources, and conservation. The natural world also leads us to study patterns in nature such as the water cycle, phases of the moon, tides, seasonal changes, and animal life cycles.

Social Studies is a blast from the past.  We go back in time to learn about the contributions of ancient civilizations that helped shape the world we live in today.  Students explore Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, Ancient China, Ancient Egypt, and Mali.  We also learn about citizenship and economics.