Third grade is a year of extraordinary growth. It serves as a transitional year during which we leave the primary grades behind and begin to accept the challenges that the intermediate grades present. During this year the children will have new and creative learning opportunities in which they will present research, think critically, and establish a strong base for success at the next level. Our students will learn how to use their textbooks, become fluent cursive writers, and learn to meet academic challenges.
We work to build confidence, independence, organizational skills, presentation skills, study skills, and research skills. By the end of the year our third graders have developed many new skills and have gained confidence in themselves as students and classmates. We thoroughly enjoy working with our students as facilitators of this learning throughout this exciting year. In partnership with our students’ parents third grade provides a year of wonderful learning experiences


Religion

Third graders have Religion class four days a week and we celebrate Mass on Fridays.
In our classes we strive to deepen the faith of our students through real life experience stories and related scripture stories. The children are invited to express their growing faith and affirm that expression. We have multiple opportunities for prayer daily. Our students participate in weekly liturgy, seasonal celebration activities, and in family activities related to our class room learning.
Our theme for the current school year is: Let Peace Begin With Me.
Our goal is to recognize that our students are indeed gifts to all of us from God.

Our textbook is Christ Our Life, Loyola Press, 2009. Our students can log onto www.loyolapress.com for interactive chapter reviews, printable study guides, and family activities just to name a few of the wonderful resources on the web page.


Language Arts

St. Joan of Arc School’s Language Arts and Reading program is all encompassing. Our program is a balanced literacy program. Our components include comprehension strategies, robust vocabulary, fluency, listening and speaking, spelling, phonics, and writing.  The children are engaged in a variety of diverse activities weekly that relate to the theme of the story they are reading as well as the comprehension, grammatical, spelling, and phonetic themes for the week. They participate in reading for enjoyment from a variety of genres and are provided with opportunities for written expression, creative response, critical thinking and analysis of text.
Our children are instructed in small groups and daily have three Language Arts/Reading periods divided as follows: instructional time, spelling and phonics time, and a practice and work time.
We use Harcourt School Publishers’ Storytown, 2009. Our students can access their Storytown reader, leveled readers, strategic intervention readers, and all workbooks online at www.thinkcentral.com.
We also use novel study in between Reading units and at the end of the school year. We participate in a literature circle environment for our novel study.
Third graders also work on learning cursive handwriting using the Zaner-Bloser method during the first semester. For the second semester the children produce their daily work in cursive writing.


Math

Third grade Math builds a strong foundation in basic skills and problem solving strategies. The children work at mastering basic math facts. They are engaged in building math vocabulary, mental math activities, and extended response problem solving. The children are instructed in small groups and daily have an instructional period and a practice work period.
We use Houghton Mifflin Math, 2007. Student resources are available on line on www.eduplace.com.
The content areas are:

* Place value and money
* Addition and subtraction
* Data and probability
* Multiplication and division basic facts
* Measurement
* Geometry
* Fractions and decimals
* Multiplication and division by 1-digit numbers


Social Studies

Our third grade Social Studies curriculum focuses on community growth both past and present. We study people in their communities and a diversity of cultures. We stress citizenship and government, geography and the physical and economical aspects of communities.
The children will work on two research projects during the year. One project is related to the states and the other American Indians. The children create a report and present their information to their classmates in a variety of creative ways. These projects help to develop research and presentation skills.
We use Houghton Mifflin Social Studies, 2005. This third grade text is also available for our students at www.eduplace.com.

The content areas are:

* Communities
* Geography
* Native Americans
* Citizenship and government


Science

Our third grade Science curriculum teaches children to act like a scientist. In other words we encourage our children to ask questions because that is how scientists learn. Our approach is hands on as weekly the children participate in a hands on activity related to our topic. The children are engaged in active, meaningful, cooperative learning—and it is exciting to watch! Some of the activities are growing plants, dissecting flowers, taking a closer look at the parts of an egg, making papier-mâché planets, simulating the phases of the moon and solar and lunar eclipses, and making sundials just to name a few!
We use MacMillan McGraw Hill Science: A Closer Look, 2008. Students can log onto http://www.mhschool.com/science/2011/student/na/grade3/index.html for lesson reviews, summaries, vocabulary quizzes, and Science in Motion features.

The content areas are:
Living Things
Ecosystems
Earth and Its Resources
Weather and Space
The children also work collaboratively on two web quest projects during the year using our mobile lap tops in class.  One project is related to animal life cycles and the other space. The children create a report and a visual and present their information to their classmates in a variety of creative ways.


English and Creative Writing

English is a new subject in third grade. We have English separate and apart from our Reading class four times a week. The children work to build skill with basic mechanics, expand their basic writing skills, and develop more mature written expression.
During our Creative Writing periods which are scheduled three times a week; the children work on a variety of writing assignments, such as narrative writing and poetry, using the 6-trait method. They also learn to process write which includes; brainstorming, writing a rough draft, revising, editing, and producing a final copy.
We use Houghton Mifflin English, 2007.

The content areas are:
Nouns
Verbs
Adjectives and adverbs
Capitalization and punctuation
Personal narrative writing
Writing a story
Writing instructions
Writing a report
Writing to express and opinion
Writing to persuade


Assignments

Homework will require approximately 30 minutes per night.
Late work is accepted without a deduction, however if work is consistently missing, this will be indicated with a checkmark in the learner characteristics portion of the grade report
All work is equally weighted in third grade


Classroom Cooperation

Each homeroom teacher has specific guidelines that are outlined at Curriculum night at the beginning of the year. Some basic items covered will be:
Use of assignment notebook
Recognition of positive student behavior
Student rights and responsibilities



The third grade curriculum also includes Music, Art, Physical Education, Technology Center, Library, and Spanish. Third graders learn to play the recorder second semester in Music class and this is thoroughly enjoyed by all.
Our Spanish program includes music which increases vocabulary skills and pronunciation. They play hands on games to practice skills and are allowed opportunities to present and demonstrate their learned skill.
Our curriculum also provides a number of Reading Incentive Programs. We participate in:

Accelerated Reader
Book It
600 Minute Reading Club
Monarch Books
D.E.A.R. time quarterly
Daily independent reading time


Snack and Lunch

We have a healthy snack everyday. We begin our lunch period with 5 minutes of peaceful eating. We have a school hot lunch program on most Thursdays


Birthdays

We follow school policy

Updated 4/2011