Grey Nun Academy's Third Grade Classroom

Reading

Students will...

• Apply an integrated word identification strategy through the use of phonics and context clues
• Build vocabulary through various literary genre and word study
• Develop a repertoire of cognitive strategies for predicting, monitoring, summarizing, and evaluating texts
• Strengthen comprehension of fiction and nonfiction literature through guided reading, literature circles, and flexible grouping.
• Identify the elements of fiction, inclusive of character, plot, setting, and theme
• Develop fluency rate and expression
• Respond to literature through writing and other forms of expression
• Read self-selected novels independently
• Participate in guided literary discussions

Language Arts

Students will...

• Follow multi-step directions
• Demonstrate good listening skills
• Identify parts of a sentence
• Create short poetic pieces
• Utilize rubrics to assess writing performance levels
• Follow all learned grammatical skills, including indentation, capitalization, and punctuation
• Use legible handwriting along with proper spacing and sizing
• Apply new grammatical skills, such as comma usage, proper tense, quotation marks, and plural possessives
• Learn assigned spelling words and apply throughout their third grade experience
• Develop individual and cooperative skills
• Utilize graphic organizers to enhance study skills
• Apply test-taking strategies
• Provide oral presentations before the classroom community
• Demonstrate an understanding for how to use reference materials (dictionary, thesaurus, encyclopedia) 

Mathematics

Students will...

• Express place value orally, concretely through use of manipulatives, and in written form
• Gain number sense enabling them to order numbers according to their worth
• Apply place value understanding to work with money
• Further develop their addition and subtraction abilities as we move away from concrete representations of the operations toward mental math
• Become well-versed in identifying time
• Learn how to read from graphs as well as represent their own recorded data on graphs
• Understand that multiplication is repeated addition
• Commit to memory multiplication tables
• Learn the operation of division
• Identify geometric figures and discover how to find the perimeter, area, and volume of such figures
• Identify fractional parts
• Comprehend the purpose of decimals and work with them to perform operations
• Distinguish between the English System of Measurement and the Metric System

Religion

Students will...

• Demonstrate their faith in day to day activities and routines
• Identify the three parts of the Holy Trinity
• Memorize the Act of Contrition and the Apostle's Creed
• Discuss Bible Stories
• Develop an understanding for how to find given Bible passages
• Analyze the lives of saints in accordance with Archdiocesan Guidelines
• Learn about the mission of the Church
• Recognize the significance of the parts of the Mass

Science

Students will...

• Use their senses while gaining a better understanding of science through exploration and the scientific method
• Explore the Sun, planets, and other aspects of the solar system
• Investigate the features, needs, and changes of living things
• Analyze different types of rocks and their formation
• Study the geographic systems which lead to hurricanes, dustbowls, tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanoes, tornadoes, and glaciers
• Identify and classify several ecosystems: pond/river, desert, arctic tundra, forest, ocean, and rainforest
• Discuss the fragility of ocean and rainforest ecosystems

Social Studies

Students will...

• Analyze and interpret maps
• Recognize different types of bodies of water
• Compare and contrast Native American Indian tribes, cultures, and relationships with pioneers
• Discuss the impact of the pilgrims
• Explore westward expansion including the Oregon Trail, Pioneers, and the Gold Rush
• Identify areas of the local, state, and national government
• Discuss current events throughout the year
• Describe and identify various terrains: mountains, desert, prairie, and woodlands