Third Grade

Third Grade Curriculum Introduction

Reading skills are refined in the third grade. Children read longer chapter books both fiction and nonfiction independently. They can summarize the main points from reading. They ask and answer what, how, why, and what-if questions about texts. Students use a dictionary to look up new words. They learn to use a table of contents and index.

In spelling they study the use of prefixes and suffixes. Students regularly practice spelling and vocabulary enrichment. They learn about homophones and common abbreviations.

Third grade students can write brief stories, reports, poems, letters and descriptions. They learn basic letter writing conventions. They develop paragraphs with a topic sentence, central idea and supporting details. They practice organizing, drafting, revising, and proofreading their writing.

English grammar development is advanced through refinement of sentence development. The students learn to distinguish between a complete sentence and sentence fragment. They can identify the four sentence types. They study the use of nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. They know how to use punctuation marks including commas (in dates, addresses, in a series and after yes and no), apostrophes (in contractions and possessive nouns).

In history the children continue to learn about early America. Map work is used frequently to learn about the geography of historical topics. Dramatic play and written and oral reports help the students to learn about the history topics. Good citizenship is taught and recognized in the third grade.

Third grade art teaches children to recognize the use of light and shadows. Children become aware of the use of patterns balance, and symmetry in their painting. Art projects are incorporated into the core curriculum and free creative art time.

Character formation and moral values are incorporated in all aspects of the school day. Virtues in historical characters, fictional heroes and ordinary citizens are discussed. Politeness, courtesy, and civility are expected in all students. These manners teach the children to act properly in everyday situations. Good study habits are emphasized in the classroom and carry over into the home through daily homework assignments.

Multiplication and division facts are mastered in the third grade. They practice making precise calculations in addition, subtraction, multiplication and division though checking the validity of their answers. They can round numbers to the nearest ten and hundreds, make and read a bar graph, recognize fractions, and introduce to reading, and writing decimals to the hundredths and make change.

In Science the children begin to use research. They continue their study of earth science, the human body, simple machines and the universe. The children learn to inquiry about their world and develop their knowledge of it.

Spanish, Faith Development, P.E., and Computer are taught as enrichment subjects. Christian morals and values are taught though out the curriculum.

» Download the 3rd Grade class curriculum.