3rd Grade Overview
(2011-2012)
This is a year filled with
exciting challenges aimed at helping each student become a life-long,
independent learner. It is our
goal to help students master the required benchmarks, as well as to develop
their love for learning.
Third grade is a year in which
students are making the transition from learning to read to reading to
learn. The phonics and decoding
skills are reviewed for reinforcement purposes, and students are often given
many opportunities to practice reading to improve fluency, which should help
improve comprehension. Students
are guided to use their reading skills to find information, to determine cause
and effect, to learn categorization and classification of information, to learn
the author’s purpose and to be able to summarize and sequence information. They also are taught to draw
conclusions and make inferences in the text. Vocabulary development is emphasized in all subject areas
through a variety of strategies.
Math benchmarks in third grade
focus on number sense, place value, geometry, measurement and algebra. At this level, students should have
addition and subtraction facts memorized.
They should be able to add and subtract with and without
regrouping. It is very important
that they know how to solve real world problems, which may involve
multi-steps. The students work on
understanding multiplication and division concepts, as well as begin to
memorize those facts.
Third grade writing is focused on
being able to write narrative and expository essays of 3-5 paragraphs. The essays should be focused,
organized, include supporting details with a variety of sentence structure, and
make good word choices. Students
are also encouraged to use figurative language, dialog, onomatopoeia, and other
strategies for enhancing the writing.
Developing the voice of the writer is also a goal in third grade.
The goal of preparing students to
master benchmarks, as well scoring well on FCAT is met by placing students in
classes according to their ability levels. The groups are flexible groups, in that students are moved
to a level where they learn best and can receive instruction which is most
beneficial to the student in the areas of reading and math. Conferences are held with all teachers
and parents to determine the best strategies for working with each student and
help them become successful, independent learners.
Third grade highlights:
- Multiplication
- Cursive
- FCAT
- Honor Roll
- Opportunities to work
with multiple teachers/classmates
- Fairy Tale Brain
Brawl (culminating literature and social studies activity)