OVERVIEW

In third grade, the following subjects are taught daily and form the foundation of our core classes. Every student is provided with a challenging and engaging learning experience.  Common Core State Standards are used as the baseline for grade level learning targets.  My goal is to help students to become creative, critical thinkers and be able to focus and diligently solve problems.

• INSTRUCTIONAL METHODOLOGY
• Core Instructional Practices (CIP) is used in lessons daily to provide direct, explicit instruction, guided learning, partner work, and independent work. We also implement ongoing differentiation, small group instruction (Workshop), and use of technology (computer lab and iPads).

• ASSESSMENTS
• Nearly every lesson is followed by some type of informal assessment to show that each student ‘got it’. Some examples include, journal entries, discussion questions, practice sheets, and quick writes. Additionally, there also summative assessments that include regular chapter tests, written reports, and final papers. All students take the Archdiocese STAR assessments in math and reading four times per year to show how they are doing in mastering grade level skills and content.
• Students in third grade also take the DRA (Diagnostic Reading Assessment) twice a year to check for grade level reading and writing competency.
• STAR Early Literacy Assessment, STAR Reading, and STAR Math are computer-based, standardized assessments given four times per year to monitor student achievement and growth, and to inform instruction.

ACADEMIC SUBJECTS

Religion
The focus is on growing in a community of faith by learning that the Catholic Church is One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic. We learn the importance of Mass, the Sacraments, family, prayer and God’s love and grace in our lives. Bible stories are taught through the text book and the Children’s Bible. Students will appropriately understand the following areas of our faith:
 God calls us to faith
 Jesus is always with us
 What Catholics believe
 How Catholics worship, live, and pray
 Jesus brings us to the Kingdom of God
 The seasons of Lent, Advent, and Ordinary Time
 Bible Stories and characters
 Virtues
 Liturgies
 Memorization of traditional prayers, worship, and the recitation of the Rosary
 Mary’s and the saints roles in our Church
 Family Life

Blest Are We /Silver Burdett, Ginn
Family Life/Benziger
Children’s Daily Prayer Book/Liturgy Training Publications
Tomie dePaola’s Book of Chlidren’s Bible Stories/G.P Putnam’s Sons

Language Arts
The SRA Imagine It Reading Program fully integrates content area links and activities to help each child meet or exceed the standards. The students are taught phonemic/word structure, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension skills while reading different genres (fiction, non-fiction, blends, plays, poems, biographies) that reinforce the use of varying comprehension strategies and responses.
We also read two chapter books (Sarah Plain and Tall and The BFG) together as a class to enjoy in-depth Book Studies.
Writing, grammar, and spelling are integrated into this program and are also strengthened by the use of the Loyola Press Grammar and Voyages in English.

The Accelerated Reading online program is used to encourage independent reading and comprehension.
D’Nealian Cursive is used to present proper form for cursive writing.

Imagine It/SRA

Writer’s Workshop

Grammar Loyola Press Voyages in English
Sarah Plain and Tall/Sarah MacLaclan
BFG/Roald Dahl
English Language Arts Apps on class set of iPads

Writing- Writer’s Workshop
We use Writer’s Workshop to teach students that writing is a process. Students have choice in their topics and voice of their papers. Throughout the year we will study, develop, and write five kinds of papers: Personal Narrative (Oct.), Personal Essay (Nov.), Content -Research Essay(Jan. & Feb.), Persuasive Essay (March), and Realistic Fiction (May).

Methodology

Writer’s Workshop is an interdisciplinary writing technique which can build students’ fluency in writing through repeated, continuous exposure to the process of writing. Most writing periods begin with a meeting time where students gather in a close group to participate in a mini-lesson. A Mini-Lesson is a short lesson focused on a single topic that students need help with. It can be focused of writing techniques, grammar, or both. Daily workshop time includes, set-up, meeting time, independent time, partner time, wrap-up/daily edit, make a plan for next time.

The components of the writing process are: Immersion (study the kind of paper you will be writing), Collect (collect ideas in your notebook that might turn into stories), Choose (pick the idea that you feel strongest to write about), Develop (write more on the idea you have picked), Draft (re-read all you have written and pick out the parts that support your big idea and draft these out), Revise (re-read my draft and make any changes to improve it), Final Edit (use a checklist, peer edit, and my own ideas to make final changes), Celebrate (sit in the ‘Author’s Chair’ to share your story with the class).

Math
Saxon Math uses an incremental, balanced approach with guided instruction and manipulatives. Students move from the concrete to the pictorial to the abstract. Math comprehension and math writing skills are developed through word problems. A solid base of skills is reinforced using timed tests and flash cards. Skills mastered include:
 Problem solving strategies
 Addition, subtraction, multiplication and division facts
 Word problems, algebra, square roots
 Fractions and decimals
 Money, and measurement
 Geometry and spatial relations
 Estimation, probability
 Math vocabulary

Saxon Mathematics
Mathletics Online
Math apps on class set of iPads

Social Studies

Students learn about the different land forms of the United States. They study Native American tribes who lived in these areas and learn how they survived. Students learn how people in communities related to each other in the past, and compare this with how we relate to one another today.  U.S. Government and citizen’s responsibilities are also studied. Map skills, geography, and reading various tables, charts, and graphs are practiced as well.

Individual projects, group work, and field trips are used to bring Social Studies alive. Areas of study include:

• Exploration of community
• State and national branches of government
• Native American tribal reports and projects
• Identify map elements and understanding geographic terms
• Rights and responsibilities of citizens
• Field trips to Riley’s Log Cabin, Pasadena Historical Museum

Sea to Shining Sea/ Houghton/ Mifflin

Geography/Spectrum

Scholastic News Magazine

Science

The science curriculum is based on the idea that all children can investigate and learn science. They must develop knowledge of the processes of scientific inquiry while studying life, earth, and physical sciences. In 3^rd grade, this is done through the study of the survival of living things, the solar system, and energy and matter.

• Individual projects, group work, and field trips are used to bring Science alive. Areas of study include:
  • Scientific method
  • Animal kingdoms
  • Ecosystems
  • Matter and Energy
  • Solar System
  • Field Trip to Descanso Gardens and L.A. County Fair
  • Science Project (optional) Certificate of Merit

  Science/Harcourt

  Schlolastic News Magazine

  Science Apps on iPads