Third Grade Curriculum Guide
The Catholic School is a unique faith-centered community, which integrates thinking and believing in ways that encourage intellectual growth, nurture faith, and inspire action.
The commitment to academic excellence, which fosters the intellectual development of all students, is an integral part of the mission of our school.
RELIGION
Your child will learn about:
- Creation, Catholic Foundations, Church History, People of Faith, Ways to Worship, The Commandments, Sacraments, Celebrating the Catholic year
- Planning and participating in school liturgies
- Saints research
- Writing prayers
- Bible Verses
- Family life
- Stewardship
- Community
- All children attend our school Mass every other Friday in addition to Holy Days of Obligation, special prayer services, and liturgies
WRITING
Your child will learn about:
- These forms of writing: narrative, explanatory, expository, comparing-contrasting, poetry, friendly-business letters, plays, and prayers
- How to write research reports
- Emphasis on the writing traits:
- Conventions, ideas, content, sentence
- fluency, word choice, voice,
- organization, and presentation
READING
Your child will learn:
- Decoding, word attack skills, and vocabulary development to build fluency
- Skill building:
- Author’s perspective
- Cause and effect
- Classify and categorize
- Compare and contrast
- Context clues
- Details
- Drawing conclusions
- Elements of fiction/nonfiction
- Fact and opinion
- Glossary
- Literary concepts and forms
- Main Idea
- Making inferences and predictions
- Predicting outcomes
- Proofreading
- Reality and Fantasy
- Research skills
- Sequencing
- Story elements
- Summarizing
GRAMMAR
Your child will learn about:
- Sentences: subject and predicate
- Sentence types
- Nouns: common, proper, singular, plural, and possessive
- Abbreviations
- Pronouns: subjects and object
- Adjectives
- Verbs: present, past, main and helping
- Irregular verbs
- Contractions
- Adverbs
SPELLING
Your child will have:
- A weekly spelling word list inter-related with our current reading series
- A weekly spelling test
- Cumulative spelling test following each reading theme
MATH
Your child will learn:
- Addition and subtraction facts
- Place value and number sense
- Addition and money
- Time, Data, Graphs
- Multiplication facts from 0 to 9
- Division facts from 0 to 9
- Multiply and divide by 1 digit numbers
- Measurement
- Geometry
- Fractions
- Decimals
- Problem solving strategies
- Probability
- Logic
ASSESSMENT
Our students participate in the ITBS assessment, which is a National Standard assessment tool.
DIBELS
An oral reading fluency test given 3 times per year.
SCIENCE
Your child will participate in:
Inquiry-based LASER Science units of:
- Chemistry
- Rocks & Minerals
- Plant Growth and Development
In addition, your child will study:
- The Polar Regions with a focus on
- penguins
- Nutrition and health
- Endangered species, ecosystems, and experience first-hand salmon habitats and water quality
P.E.
Students receive 30 minutes of P.E. two times a week in which the focus is on gross and fine motor skills, learning new games, participation and respect for others.
MUSIC
Your child will enjoy music classes for 30 minutes twice a week. Singing is a primary focus and learning about other cultures through their songs. More emphasis on musical terminology and understanding is expected.
COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY
Your child will:
- Use word processing to create, edit, and publish
- Use computer programs to practice and review various math and reading skills
- Participate in the Accelerated Reader program
- Use the Star Reading Assessment program
- Use technology to aid in research
ART
The elements and principles of art will be integrated into the classroom curriculum through on hour of art instruction each week with our school’s art teacher. Your child will create numerous art activities related to the social studies and science curriculum:
- The seasons
- Native American studies
- The rain forest
Your child will also study the Fauvist and Impressionist movements in art history.
Your child will learn skills involved in
- Contour drawing
- Printmaking—block and mono-prints
- Collage
- Sumi watercolor
- Color theory and Impressionist painting
- Paper making
- Chalk drawing
- Paper sculpture
- Proper use and care of art materials
ACTIVITIES:
The children will enjoy class field trips which are supplemental to the classroom experience.
MESSAGE TO PARENTS:
Welcome to the world of third grade! Responsible thinking, self-respect, and caring for others are a part of our classroom’s faith community.
Concepts are presented in a combination of traditional skills and inquiry-based learning.
Each child is expected to achieve, be challenged, and contribute to the classroom environment using his/her unique abilities.
Parent Volunteers are a welcome addition to our classroom learning. Please contact your child’s teacher for more details.
September 2007