Third Grade

Language Arts:

In 3rd grade, students continue to develop skills in phonics, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, comprehension, and fluency. By the end of third grade, students are able to recognize the parts of speech, including but not limited to: types of nouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, interjections, contractions, etc. They have knowledge of prefixes, suffixes, synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and homonyms as well. Third graders also begin to diagram sentences and identify the subject and predicate of a sentence. Throughout the year, many of the skills are reviewed periodically to ensure that the students retain the information in order to gain mastery of specific skills and concepts.

 Math:

Students master their multiplication facts as they begin to move into division. By the end of third grade, students have an understanding of place value to the millions. They  review addition and subtraction with whole numbers.  Knowledge of multiplication and division facts is pertinent at this level, because it is a necessary skill required for many applications required in fourth grade. Students also further develop their understanding of measurement, including perimeter, area, time, weight, length and capacity. Toward the end of the school year, students are introduced to geometry, data collection, and probability, which are developing skills for third graders. As they progress throughout the school year, third graders are able to sharpen their problem solving skills and learn to think critically about situations using real world applications.

 Reading:

As a 3rd grader, students work on reading comprehension using a variety of strategies, such as using context clues and text-walks. Throughout the school year, students will learn how to make inferences, discover the main idea of a piece of text, reading between the lines, and much more. As we use our textbook, Journeys, they will have stories to read weekly, accompanied with vocabulary. Each story uses a different strategy to assist the students with comprehension. Students will get exposure to a variety of genres, and be able to distinguish between each of them. They will have opportunities to read orally during the year, which will help in their intonation, phrasing, and projection as they read in front of an audience of their peers. We teach students to encourage each other as we read aloud, as to help one another build self-confidence.

 Religion:

Third Grade students are hands-on, concrete learners who are beginning to understand abstract concepts.  This year , in the We Believe Religion series, students will be introduced to the concept of Church as a community, in the parish and around the world and discover their role in this community.  As students grow in social awareness and skills, they will be eager to join with others in liturgy, prayer, reading Scriptures, and in community service to those in need.  The student's growing thinking skills will enable them to better understand the reasons behind our Catholic beliefs and practices.

 Science:

Students are engrossed in a hands-on learning experience. The class conducts experiments throughout the year that are aligned with the lessons. Students work their way through life science, earth and space science, and physical science. In life science, students study plants and animals, and how they work together to create an ecosystem. In earth and space science, students learn about the rock cycle, earth’s resources, our solar system, and weather. Along with conducting periodical experiments, students also create projects such as an edible cell and a replica of the solar system.

 Social Studies:

3rd grade students will metaphorically travel the world as they explore our community locally and worldwide. The class will dig deep into the study of our country and learn the 50 states, continents, and oceans. They learn and discuss different cultures that make up our country. An overview of United States history is explored and they study the foundations of our country. By the end of third grade, students are able to locate places on a map and globe, describe the functions of our government, and explain historical events and their purpose in the foundation of our country.