Third Grade Curriculum Outlines
Language Arts
Basal Readers
Open Court textbook and workbook, including short stories, poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and plays. The foundation of the reading curriculum is made of the skills and strategies that lead to early independence and decoding, comprehension, writing and critical thinking.Novels – Meet Addy, Book 1 of the American Girl Series; Sarah, Plain and Tall, Patricia MacLachlan; Charlotte's Web, E. B. White; Class Clown, Johanna Hurwitz; Horrible Harry and the Dungeon, Suzy Kline.
Accelerated Reader
A computer-based reading practice program, which allows students to read books that are at their individual level, and take tests on the books from the classroom computer.
Spelling
The McDougal, Littell Spelling program is organized to allow students to purposely and systematically discover and apply the patterns and principles that underlie the English system of spelling.
English
Houghton-Mifflin Grammar book - Write complete sentences, and study nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, capitalization and punctuation.
Handwriting
Cursive Italic Basal Readers – Italic is a modern handwriting system based on enduring letterforms that are highly suited to rapid and legible writing. Italic conforms to natural, rhythmic hand movements. Italic builds on previously learned concepts and the letter shapes remain the same from the individually formed letters to the connected cursive, eliminating the abrupt leap from "ball and stick" to looped cursive. Self-assessment is an integral part of the program. Cursive Italic is also preparation for caligraphy for interested students.
Vocabulary
Journals for vocabulary in Science, Social Studies, and Literature.
Mathematics
Saxon math – a comprehensive system from Kindergarten through pre-calculus, which emphasizes learning in small increments and review of all previously learned concepts throughout the year. Grades K-4 is primarily a hands-on approach working with manipulatives. Each night's homework consists of many different types of problems from all previous lessons. For a detailed look at covered topics, see the Scope and Sequence, available in the school office.
Social Studies
Grades 1-6 use Harcourt Brace textbooks which emphasizes critical thinking skills. Units are also related to literature. Grade 3 Units and topics covered are:
• What is a Community?
• Where People Start Communities
• The Many People of a Community
• People Working Together
• Living Together in a Community, State, and Nation; Colonial Times;Introduction to using maps, tables, and graphs
• Learn the names of the 50 states
Science
Grades 1-6 use Silver Burdett Discovery Works system – in which concepts are taught through hands-on experiments for every unit as well as textbooks. Grade 3 Units and topics are:
• LIFE SCIENCE: Life Cycles; Roles of Living Things
• EARTH SCIENCE: Sun, Moon, and Earth; Earth's Water
• PHYSICAL SCIENCE: Forms of Energy
• HUMAN BODY: What's for Lunch – Nutrition and Healthy Diet
Additional Subjects
Foreign Language (Korean or Spanish), Physical Education, Music, Art, Technology, Character Education through a morning message every morning.
Art
Textbooks/Materials used: Art Fun, A survival kit for art teacher (3 books), Glass painting book, 501 fun-to-make Family Crafts.
Units and Topics: Learn to take responsibility, distribute, collect material, clean table etc. Learn how to see and draw and see everything in shapes. Learn the proportion of human body and draw their classmate. Learn how to use Tempera, oil pastel, color pencils and markers and recognize their differences. Learn how to compose a picture from the background to the front, from the big to small and the atmospheric perspective (big in the front and small in the back, less detail in the back more in the front).
Learn between warm and cool colors and how to use them. Achieving better hand coordination through glass-paint projects and learning how different this media is from others because it is playing with light. Making masks from paper maché and painting them with acrylic colors - exploring masks from different cultures. Projects using Plastilina and working with their hands. Learn about print making using styrofoam sheets. Learn about embossing using metal foil. Fun projects: crafts for different holidays, i.e. Thanks-giving turkeys made from all organic materials: beans, feathers, straws etc. Last but not least, learn how to express themselves and to have fun!
Korean Language
The Korean language program is designed for students to develop and polish their skills in reading, writing, and speaking the Korean language. In addition, students will be able to identify Korean language and culture through a variety of special activities.
Elementary school students are generally organized into four levels: kindergarten, grades 1 & 2, grades 3 & 4 and grades 5 & 6. For younger students, we use various materials and techniques, which are helpful to understand Korean vocabulary and culture.
Grades 3 & 4: students will attend Korean class twice a week. They will learn the Korean alphabet and simple conversation. Also, they will learn how to speak and read Korean action verbs. In addition, they will learn Korean words relating to family, colors, traditional clothing, songs, and drawings.
Spanish
Third Grade, Fourth grade: Elementary Spanish: Students will learn basic vocabulary and grammar structure of the language through oral and written exercises, games, and roll play exercises. Identify concepts presented in the units and topics, such as shapes, numbers and more through a prepared classroom environment that reflects the Spanish culture. 4th grade: It begins with a rapid review of the basic grammatical structures and vocabulary already studied by the student in the previous year. This brief review is followed by more advanced structures needed to acquire better proficiency. Classroom activities progress from drills to exercises of a more communicative approach.
Materials used: Bilingual Language Material Reproducibles: Spanish for Young Children by Alice M. Renton and Jan Archuleta; I speak Spanish with Mr. Parrot, book 1 and book 2, Hayes School Publishing Co; Inc., Traditional Poems, Spanish Embassy; Spanish without problems by Jose M. Diaz, Sott Foresman; Educational Videotapes, cassette tapes and software.
Units and Topics: September and October: The Calendar (numbers, months, days of the week), seasons, weather and greetings. The Family, We are all children of God, Myself, Columbus Day. November: The School, The class, People at my School, Colors, Shapes, Day of the Dead. December: The House and furniture. January: Our Body and Our Five Senses, Emotions. February: Clothing, Sizes, More Colors, Vocabulary in Action. March and April: Fruits and Vegetables, Food (breakfast, lunch and dinner), The Market. May: Spring, Nature, Plants and Animals. June: Our Community, Transportation, Communication and Plan a Vacation.
Music
Students will continue to build their foundation in tone color, dynamics, rhythm, tempo, form, meter, and solfege. They will be introduced to melodic direction, written notation, dynamics, phrases, dotted whole and sixteenth notes, upbeats, downbeats, legato, staccato, marcato, tonal center, and identifying if pieces are in major or minor keys through analytical listening, singing and playing pitched and unpitched instruments. (McGraw-Hill’s Share The Music curriculum)
Units and Topics: Reading and clapping rhythms, singing different cultural songs, discussing the history of songs, learning to play instruments, learning about instruments, listening to different types of music, louds and softs, directions of notes, movement and dancing, expression, and geography of the songs origin.
Physical Education
Units and Topics:
• Understanding principals of practice and conditioning that improve performance
• Using concepts of space awareness and movement control with a variety of basic skills while interacting with others
• Introducing soccer, basketball, hockey, volleyball, football, kickball, and softball
• Using basic fitness circuit to stress importance of basic exercises and improve performance in Presidential Fitness Testing
Technology
Programs used:
• Type to learn
• Kidpix Studio Deluxe
• Microsoft Word
• Story Book Weaver
Units and Topics:
• Using a computer and disks
• Using painting and drawing tools
• Students will experience keyboard skills appropriate to grade level
• Basic word processing skills
• Designing and creating multimedia projects using a variety of sources
• Internet Basics 1
