What your child learns in third grade

Our commitment to academic excellence runs through every subject, in a faith-centered classroom that encourages thinking, believing, and action.

Religion

Your child will learn about:

• Creation, Catholic foundations, Church history, people of faith, ways to worship, the Commandments, sacraments, and celebrating the Catholic year
• Planning and participating in school liturgies
• Bible verses
• Family life, stewardship, and community

All students attend school Mass every Friday, along with Holy Days of Obligation, special prayer services, and liturgies.

Writing

Your child will learn the forms of writing (narrative, expository, persuasive, biography, and descriptive), the writing traits (conventions, ideas, content, sentence fluency, word choice, voice, organization, and presentation), and the writing process.

Reading

Your child will build decoding, word-attack skills, and vocabulary for fluency, along with skills such as author's perspective, cause and effect, compare and contrast, context clues, drawing conclusions, fact and opinion, main idea, inferences and predictions, sequencing, story elements, and summarizing.

Grammar

Your child will learn about sentences (subject and predicate, sentence types), nouns (common, proper, singular, plural, possessive), abbreviations, pronouns, adjectives, verbs (present, past, main, helping, and irregular), contractions, and adverbs.

Spelling

Your child will have a weekly spelling list organized by phonetic rules and a weekly spelling test.

Math

Your child will learn addition and subtraction facts, place value and number sense, money and time, data, graphs, and probability, multiplication and division facts from 0 to 12, measurement, geometry, fractions, decimals, and problem-solving strategies.

Assessment

Students take the MAPS assessment three times per year and DIBELS, an oral reading fluency test, three times per year.

Science

Your child will take part in inquiry-based LASER science units on animal habits, how weather and climate affect our lives, and plant growth and development, plus a study of nutrition and health.

Physical Education

Students receive 45 minutes of P.E. once per week, focused on gross and fine motor skills, learning new games, participation, and respect for others.

Music

Students have music twice a week for 40 minutes, reviewing concepts and exploring folk, sacred, and secular pieces through rhythm, melody, form, and texture, along with pitched and unpitched percussion.

Computer Technology

Your child will use word processing to create, edit, and publish, practice math and reading skills with computer programs, and use technology to support research.

Art

The elements and principles of art are integrated into the classroom through an hour of art each week with the school's art teacher. Projects connect to social studies and science (the seasons, Native American studies, the rain forest), and students study Japanese art and the Impressionist movement. They build skills in contour drawing, printmaking, collage, sumi watercolor, color theory, paper marbling, chalk drawing, and clay, along with the proper use and care of materials.

Message to parents

Welcome to the world of third grade. Responsible thinking, self-respect, and caring for others are part of our classroom's faith community. Concepts are presented through a mix of traditional skills and inquiry-based learning, and each child is expected to achieve, be challenged, and contribute using their unique abilities. Parent volunteers are always welcome; contact your child's teacher for details.