Posts in 3rd Grade
3rd grade - foreign language

Foreign Language

The Greene School Foreign Language program is intended to develop listening comprehension and verbal skills in young children with classes three times a week. Skills in speaking, listening, reading, and writing are developed in this course. Students acquire language proficiency with visual and interactive support using grade level vocabulary and techniques such as Total Physical Response (TPR) and Natural Approach. The goal of both of these strategies is to allow students to learn a second language in the same way they learned their first language – through their senses, encouraging long-term retention of the language. The approach to learning the language is naturally fundamental and repetitive as vocabulary is recycled to ensure mastery of the vocabulary words.

Third grade students use the ¡Qué chévere! and Realidades curriculum textbook which integrate development of language proficiency into cultural understanding using project-based learning activities, multimedia resources, songs, games, and stories.

  • Students will learn recalling, interpreting, and pronouncing the vocabulary appropriately.

  • Students will learn grade level subject pronouns, subject-verb agreement, adjectives, adverbs, affirmatives/negatives, people, verbs, clothes, school subjects, questions, possessive adjectives, objects/other nouns, places, sports/entertainment/music, foods, prepositions, time/days of the week, and weather.

  • Students will learn to answer questions on information using simple language about personal preferences, needs, and feelings.

  • Students will learn to use basic language skills supported by body language and gestures to express agreement and disagreement.

  • Students will learn to present personal information about one’s self by answering questions.

  • Students will learn to write simple sentences using the correct verbs and creativity.

  • Students will learn to use information acquired through the study of the practices and perspectives of the target culture(s) to identify some of their characteristics and compare them to the student’s own culture.

  • Students will learn to follow short and simple directions.

  • Students will learn to recite the numbers from 1-40 in the target language.

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3rd GradeSamantha PennForeign Language
3rd grade - science

Science

Third grade students will study three science domains over the course of the year: Life Science, Earth and Space Science, and Physical Science.

  • Students will learn to define a simple design problem that can be solved by applying scientific ideas about magnets.

  • Students will determine cause and effect relationships of electric or magnetic interactions between two objects.

  • Students will study life cycles, plant and animal traits, how animals’ habitats help them to survive, and environmental changes to habitats.

  • Students will study seasonal weather conditions, climates of different regions of the world, and the impact of weather-related hazards.

  • Students will learn about the effects of balanced and unbalanced forces on the motion of an object and analyze patterns to predict future motion.

  • Students will learn to determine and describe the climate and vegetation of the various regions in the USA, Canada, Mexico and Caribbean.

  • Students will learn to identify natural resources in these biomes and apply knowledge to a culminating end-of-year science project.

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3rd GradeSamantha PennScience
3rd grade - social science

Social Science

Third grade social science revolves around central themes including: geography, culture and civic virtues, North American physical features, Black History Month, immigration, news reporting, women’s history, government, and natural resources. The Studies Weekly reading material is a main resource used to practice skills within nonfiction texts.

Throughout these units:

  • Students will learn how to analyze geographic information with maps.

  • Student will learn to utilize and incorporate map elements.

  • Students will learn to measure distance with map scales, and review continent and ocean names.

  • Students will learn to examine factors that contribute to settlement patterns in the United States of America, Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean.

  • Students will learn to compare cultural characteristics and learn about distinct contributions made by Hispanic Americans and American Indians to American culture.

  • Students will learn to research various individuals who demonstrate civic virtues from Hispanic American and American Indian cultures.

  • Students will engage in activities that demonstrate civility, cooperation, and volunteerism.

  • Students will reflect upon the lives of important individuals and investigate various volunteer organizations.

  • Students will learn to analyze primary and secondary sources as they discuss the value of volunteering.

  • Students will learn how regions play a significant role in the development of tall tales.

  • Students will discover the differences between landmarks and landforms found in distant locations across the continent, as well as in Florida.

  • Students will learn about the lives and accomplishments of various influential African Americans.

  • Students will compare the differences between autobiographical and biographical accounts, as well as the logical order of ideas and events through various informational texts.

  • Students will experience a digital, interactive field trip to Ellis Island.

  • Students will learn to draw conclusions, make inferences, locate information, determine the main/central idea, analyze charts and maps, and paraphrase.

  • Students will learn to analyze primary and secondary sources.

  • Students will discover how good reporters utilize the “Five W” questions, and consider “point of view” when conducting thorough interviews.

  • Students will study citizens whose individual actions demonstrate civility, cooperation, volunteerism, and other civic virtues.

  • Students will learn the purpose and need for government.

  • Students will learn how our government was established through the history of the U.S. Constitution, including the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Bill of Rights.

  • Students will learn about the three branches and levels of government.

  • Students will take a field trip to the Palm Beach County Courthouse.

  • Students will learn to determine and describe the climate and vegetation of the various regions in the USA, Canada, Mexico, and Caribbean.

  • Students will learn to identify natural resources in these biomes and apply knowledge to a culminating end-of-year science project.

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3rd GradeSamantha PennSocial Science
3rd grade - mathematics

Mathematics

Our mathematics curriculum uses Pearson Envision math textbook and is supplemented with various project-based activities where students are encouraged to collaborate and work through real-life problems. The overall focus of mathematics in third grade is multiplication and division within 100, fractions, especially unit fractions, rectangular arrays and area, and analyzing two-dimensional shapes.

Students work through the following concept areas: Operations and Algebraic Thinking, Number and Operations in Base 10, Measurement and Data, and Geometry.

Within each area, students make real-world connections through word problems. While we differentiate within these concept areas for each student’s individual needs and skill set, all necessary benchmark milestones are covered. Assessed skills include:

Operations in Algebraic Thinking

  • Students will learn to represent and solve problems involving multiplication and division.

  • Students will learn properties of multiplication and the relationship between multiplication and division.

  • Students will learn to multiply and divide within 100.

  • Students will learn to solve problems involving the four operations, and identify and explain patterns in arithmetic.

Number and Operations

  • Students will learn to use place value understanding and properties of operations to perform multi-digit arithmetic.

  • Students will develop an understanding of fractions as numbers.

Measurement and Data

  • Students will learn to solve problems involving measurement and estimation of intervals of time, liquid volumes, and masses of objects.

  • Students will learn to represent and interpret data.

  • Students will understand concepts of area, and relate area to multiplication and addition in geometric measurement.

  • Students will learn to recognize perimeter as an attribute of plane figures, and distinguish between linear and area measures in geometric measurement.

Geometry

  • Students will learn to reason with shapes and their attributes.

Students will learn through project-based activities and will learn to apply their knowledge understanding to real life situations through word problems and cross-curriculum activities.

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3rd GradeSamantha Penn
3rd grade - language arts

Language Arts

Our language arts curriculum utilizes a balanced approach to literacy including reading, writing, and vocabulary study. Students will think, talk, and write about what they read in a variety of articles, books, and other texts including history, social studies, and science. In collaborative discussions, students will build on the ideas of others by listening, asking questions, and sharing ideas. Students will gather information from books, articles, and online sources to build understanding of a topic. They will write research and opinion papers over extended periods of time. Students will pay more attention to organizing information, developing ideas, and supporting these ideas with facts, details, and reasons in their writing.

Reading

Students will learn the components of literature through novel studies, both fictional and informational, and poetry analysis.

Throughout our fictional novel units:

  • Students will learn to determine the cause and effect of situations, identify problems and resolutions within the plot, understand sequencing within the context of summarizing literary texts, and establish the central idea with suitable titles for chapters within the novels.

  • Students will learn to make inferences, draw conclusions, and make predictions regarding the plot, characters, and settings by identifying details.

  • Students will learn characterization through analysis of dialogue, comparing and contrasting characters, describing character traits and attributes, explaining character motivation, inferring character feelings, determining how characters develop or change over time, and analyzing how settings affect characters.

  • Students will learn how to search for the author’s hidden messages and develop a deeper understanding while examining central symbols and themes.

  • Students will learn elements of the author’s craft by examining mood and the narrator’s tone, the usage of figurative language, how the author appeals to the reader’s senses, and how the author develops their characters.

  • Students will learn to summarize a sequence of events across multiple chapters. This includes identifying the main idea, supporting details, and various conflicts within the text with correlating solutions.

  • Students will learn to identify details that support inferences and predictions, identifying various points of view, and utilizing context clues and visualization with the purpose of enhancing comprehension.

  • Students will learn to identify the author’s tone, how the author establishes various moods and why, what certain figurative elements indicate throughout the story, and how the author uses components such as foreshadowing and flashbacks to enhance the reader’s experience while strengthening the storyline.

  • Students will learn to ask open-ended questions, determine the climax, and compare all novels read throughout the year.

Throughout our informational novel units:

  • Students will learn to distinguish facts from opinions.

  • Students will learn to determine the effects of events within the text.

  • Students will learn to identify evidence to support claims.

  • Students will learn to draw conclusions based on inferences from the information.

  • Students will learn to outline important events.

  • Students will learn to identify the main idea, and distinguish details that support the main idea in informational text through the skill of note-taking.

Throughout our poetry units:

  • Students will learn various elements of poetry such as a poem’s structure, lines, stanzas, rhyme scheme, rhythm, end and internal repetition, imagery, figurative language, sensory details, mood, and tone.

  • Students will learn to use their creative ability and planning skills to compose original, descriptive poems, narrative poems, and simile poems.

  • Students will learn to analyze poetry and determine the author’s purpose, tone, mood, and hidden message, along with inferring assumptions about the author based on their poetry.

Vocabulary

Third graders will analyze select vocabulary words from their novels and expand their knowledge of Greek and Latin root words to strengthen their vocabulary acquisition and usage.

  • Students will learn to identify the correct definition and/or confirm initial understanding of multiple-meaning words with the use of dictionaries and context clues.

  • Students will learn to analyze and apply their knowledge of Greek and Latin affixes as clues to determine the meanings of Greek, and Latin words.

  • Students will learn to employ context to determine the meaning of words in informational and literary texts, implement definitions of roots to determine word meaning or meanings of Latin and Greek roots, and utilize dictionary definitions to confirm initial understanding of words or determine the meaning of unfamiliar words.

Writing & Grammar

Sentence and paragraph structure are a primary focus in third grade writing.

  • Students will learn to elaborate their sentences by incorporating description and infusing context clues in conjunction with vocabulary words.

  • Students will learn to write three types of writing: Persuasive Writing, Friendly Letter Writing, and Narrative Writing.

  • Students will learn to compose an argument using a hook sentence, three strong evidences from the text supporting their opinion, and a conclusion sentence.

  • Students will learn how to compose a friendly letter with the proper heading, greeting, body, and closing, as well as how to format street addresses when addressing envelopes.

  • Students will create and publish personal narratives using graphic organizers for planning.

  • Students will learn to write a persuasive essay using a catchy hook in their introduction, citing at least three details from the text as supportive evidence, and determining a convincing conclusion.

  • Students will learn to research and compose a research report.

  • Students will learn to use prior knowledge of friendly letter writing to draft, edit, and publish realistic fiction postcards, writing from a person in history.

  • Students will learn to plan and compose five paragraph narrative essays.

  • Students will incorporate their prior knowledge of letter writing and persuasive writing to persuade a character from one of our novels.

  • Students will learn proper grammar usage with practice editing and revising sentences, and identifying and correcting various parts of speech.

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3rd GradeSamantha PennLanguage Arts