Third Grade Curriculum

Literacy - Reading/Writing: We are excited to begin another year to help foster your child's lifelong love of reading and writing. Benchmark Literacy, the curriculum used at AES, supports all the daily components of high-quality reading/writing instruction, with a particular emphasis on the development of comprehension.  The components of interactive read-alouds, skill specific mini-lessons, small-group guided reading, independent reading, word study/spelling, and writier's workshop will be used weekly to help ensure the success of your child.  Metacognitive strategies (awareness about one's thinking) are the underlying strategies all good readers apply before, during, and after they read to actively think about a text and monitor comprehension. Throughout the year, your child will be taught how to actively engage in thinking, talk, and writing about texts.

Spelling -  Each week your child will receive a list of 8 spelling words that are a part of the Word Study component of our reading curriculum. The words will focus on a rule that we will utilize throughout the week. The rule will be printed on the back of the spelling sheet that comes home on Monday so it can be reinforced at home as well. The focus of spelling is not to memorize the words for a test, but to work with the words, to understand the rule, and to apply it to our reading and daily writing.

Math -  Our classroom will be using the Everyday Math 4 curriculum.  Home Links are sent home some days. They are meant to expand on the skills learned and practiced in school.  Remember, there is no one way to solve a problem! If it is taking too long or your child is feeling frustrated, please put it away, send it back to school, and let me know so I can work with them further at school.

Cursive -  Yes!  We finally get to learn cursive! We follow the Zaner Bloser formations.  We do encourage the students to write their names in cursive once the letters have been learned, but we do not require any assignments to be done as we are still practicing all year long!

Social Studies/Science/Health -  We teach lessons and skills directly required by the Minnesota State Standards. In Science students learn about the solar system, measurement, sound, light, the human body and skeleton, and disect owl pellets. In Social Studies we learn about the United States government, economics, geography, map skills, and important historical events. In health students learn about healthy living, safety, and the human eye.