Third Grade

Religion: We continue with the Sadlier We Believe series in third grade.  The focus of third grade Religion is on how we can be good members of the Church.

Literacy: Third grade uses the Open Court basal reader and we read several novels throughout the year.  Our stories focus on the themes of friendship, city wildlife, imagination, and money.  During our in-class discussion we focus on the main idea, details, characters, plot, setting, and context clues. Students will also learn the writing process which includes prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, evaluating, and publishing. Third graders will write fiction and non-fiction pieces over the course of the year.  We will also enter The Burlington Writer's Club contest in January. We use Grammar and Writing 3  book to learn about the principles of grammar and writing.

Spelling: Spelling words are related to the story of the week or to chapters in the novel we are reading.  Tests are given on Fridays.  Bonus words are added and count as extra credit.

Handwriting: Students will continue to build upon their skills of cursive writing. Much of the work in third grade will be required to be done in cursive.

Math: Math in third grade focuses on developing an understanding of multiplication and division strategies, fractions, arrays, area and perimeter, as well as describing and analyzing two-dimensional and three-dimensional shapes. Students will also focus on understanding place value, measurement, and probability. We dive into these concepts with a hands-on approach using demonstrations, interactive notebooks, online manipulatives, and even games.  

Science: LabLearner units for third grade include; The Solar System, Properties of Matter, The Human Body and The Sun and Your Skin.  Students use hands-on techniques to learn the concepts both in the classroom and our state-of-the-art Science lab.  A trip to Morehead Planetarium complements the third grade Science curriculum very nicely.

Social Studies: The focus of third grade Social Studies is “communities.”  We use a weekly periodical called NC Communities Weekly.  We read the articles, complete the activities and use the online resources to enhance our study.