Third Grade

Third grade enjoys a multi-faceted curriculum in all areas which challenges each child to grow in all academic areas. The third grade year is a pivotal year for growth in academics as well as work/study habits.

Math

Text: Houghton Mifflin

We review topics such as place value, addition, and subtraction before moving onto multiplication and division. the students become more acquainted with working word problems and using manipulatives in these operational areas of math. Students are presented challenging topics such as fractions, decimals, and geometry.

Reading

Text: Houghton Mifflin

We experience a variety of genres in our reading curriculum. A few of these include folktales, mysteries, tall tales, historical fiction, and poetry. Strategies which foster a love of reading are taught: predicting, inferring, comparing, evaluating, and summarizing. Classroom novels, as well as the basal reader, are used to enhance discussion of literature and independent thinking skills.

Language

Text: Houghton Mifflin

The establishment of solid sentence and paragraph writing is an integral part of third grade language. This is done through many avenues of creative writing from journaling to book reports. Writing for different purposes is also introduced, such as descriptions, instructions and directions. A variety of the parts of speech are covered in depth and put into use in these different areas of creative writing.

Social Studies

Text: McGraw Hill

This interesting third grade curriculum takes the student on a journey through different types of communities beginning with the Native Americans and ending with the way people live today in communities. Map skill practice is done to show the progression of communities settled across the United States beginning with the original thirteen colonies and pushing westward. A variety of classroom visitors as well as field trips enhance the social studies curriculum.

Science

Text: Harcourt

Science in third grade is covered in the classroom as well as enhanced with a once a week science lab experience. Some of the topics covered include plants, animals, populations (and how they interact), matter, heat, water cycle and weather. One of the highlights is always a visit from the Montgomery Zoo! They bring with them a selection of animals that are endangered. The area of science is a natural area of interest for the third grader because it keys into the curiosity and the desire to learn possessed by children of this age.

Handwriting

Text: Zaner-Bloser

Cursive handwriting is introduced during the second semester of second grade. Third grade does a thorough re-introduction of each letter of the alphabet and then goes on to use cursive writing in each academic area. Communicating through the written word is viewed as an important skill in the third grade.