3rd Grade

The Arts provide opportunity for students to explore ideas and express thoughts and emotions.Over their time in the Beginning and Lower School, they develop skills in music, woodshop, and visual arts.

Woodshop

In the woodshop, students develop general shop and safety skills with hammers, saws, and drills. They practice proper ergonomic use of hand tools including body position, alignment to work, and repetitive body logistics. Students engage in group and independent projects attending to planning, material selection, step by step sequencing of construction, artistic finishing, and clean up practices.

Visual Arts

First through fifth graders visit the Art Barn to explore the visual arts. Inspired by other artists, the outdoors, and their own imaginations they engage across mediums including drawing, painting, and building with clay, sewing, and collage.

Music

Based in the Orff music education tradition, music provides time for students to express themselves through sounds and movement. Inspired by artists across cultures and by their own musicality, students have the opportunity to practice both ensemble and individual musical skills. They learn concepts of rhythm, tone, and pitch by playing instruments such as the xylophone, glockenspiel, and marimba.

Building on practices developed in the previous year, third graders expand their abilities and interest in literacy with more challenging fiction and nonfiction texts, and with the addition of reading literature circles, independent writing projects, and reading and writing conferences.

Reading

Third graders engage in six types of reading throughout the year: reading aloud, shared reading, guided reading, independent reading, literature circles, and reading conferences.

• Reading Aloud: Teacher read from chapter books, picture books, nonfiction, and poetry, and encourage discussion. Children hear fluent and expressive reading while gaining access to texts that might be beyond their reading ability.
• Shared Reading: This technique is used on a limited basis to strengthen fluency. Partners might share a poem for two voices, a small group might take on character roles from a text to practice reading with fluency and expression, or work together to research a particular topic.
• Guided Reading: This format brings together small groups of students who are at similar stages in their reading development. Teachers select texts so students can work on  reading strategies for comprehension and decoding.
• Independent reading: Students practice the habits of effective readers during this time. They develop favorite types of books, genres, topics, and authors. Teachers expand students’ tastes by giving book talks, inviting students to tell the group about a favorite book, and sometimes by assigning a book that will stretch a student. Teachers are available to confer with students or teach small reading groups.
• Literature Circles: In these discussions, students develop their own thinking about books while sharing and listening to others. Students develop proficiency with thinking deeper about a text, and thinking beyond the text itself. They search for evidence within the text to back up their ideas and answers. Discussions are a rich opportunity to learn more about books from many perspectives.
• Check-in Conferences: Students routinely check-in with teachers to review an aspect of their independent work. At the beginning of the year, conferences serve as a time to assess each student’s reading level to determine reading groups and to help students select appropriate independent reading books. As the year progresses, reading conferences are used for teachers to listen to each student read orally and provide immediate feedback.

Writing

The third grade writing program has four main components: mini lessons, independent writing, writers’ circles, and writing conferences.

• Mini-Lessons: The whole class participates in these writing sessions. Students are guided in specific writing tools, concepts, and techniques. Different types of writing are modeled from expository and narrative to poetry. Students learn the importance of supporting details, use of paragraphs, and punctuation.
• Independent Writing: Students work on self-selected and assigned writing topics. Some students work quietly on a draft with headphones to focus their thoughts; others use the time to confer with partners or a teacher, meet in a guided writing group, revise an almost finished piece, or prepare a piece for publication.
• Writers’ Circles: These groups vary in size and purpose. Sometimes the whole class meets together; other times writers’ circles are composed of a few students. Time might be devoted to sharing drafts to get feedback and ideas, or to provide an opportunity for sharing published pieces and hearing peers’ compliments.
• Writing Conferences: These are one-to-one meetings between students and teachers to discuss a work in progress or review a piece that’s ready to publish. Teachers offer personalized feedback about organizing ideas, the writing process, spelling, punctuation, grammar, and story elements. It is also a time to assess the student’s strengths and develop goals for the next steps in developing as a writer.

Word Study

The focus is on spelling patterns where students construct an understanding based on studying groups of words. Additionally, students focus on spelling while participating in writers’ circle during the editing phase of the writing process.

In third grade, students continue to develop their understanding of the practical implications of mathematics. They explore area as a starting point to uncover the concepts of multiplication and then continue to experiment with strategies and situations involving multiplication and division. The varied experiences and understandings help students become fluent with their multiplication and division facts. Students also investigate fractions as numbers and equivalent amounts. Students strengthen their math community and continue to engage in mathematical discourse.

Big Ideas in Third Grade

• Multiplication and Division: strategies, implications, and fluency
• Fractions as Numbers
• Add and Subtract within 1,000 Fluently: using place value understanding and algorithms
• Measuring Length, Time, Liquid, Volume, and Weight
• Two Dimensional Shapes and Perimeter

First through fifth grade students study either Mandarin Chinese or Spanish. During their time in the Beginning and Lower School they acquire cultural understanding and build a foundation for language acquisition and fluency. Students are immersed in situations where they develop language skills by drawing on their own experiences to engage in conversations with the teacher and peers. Through movement, song, play, art, conversation, and oral and written activities they begin to learn to listen, speak, read and write in their studied language. 

Students are empowered to develop their own investigatable questions, driving their curiosity and exploration as they conduct experiments and uncover answers through active inquiry and discovery. Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) Science and Engineering Practices are used to promote deeper understanding and engagement in scientific learning. Throughout the year, they engage in studies of physical science, life science, earth and space science, and engineering and technology. 

Questions explored in third grade include

• What can water do? What are the properties of water?
• How does water connect our Earth’s systems?
• Why are salmon important to our community and watershed?
• What happens when different objects interact with one another?
• What are forces? How do forces affect motion?

Third graders begin the year by learning how to collaborate and interact together in a positive way, and learn about social studies locally. We work together on classroom agreements, and on learning about themselves and other students. Identity work is done through various means, (e.g., literature studies, poetry writing, and class discussions) to help us better understand ourselves and the people in our community.

Students then think about what it takes to make a community thrive. We then begin to shift our focus with an overarching theme of Water. Students study watersheds, local water use, human interactions with water and the water cycle. Students develop skills to engage in inquiry projects throughout the year. This work begins with students asking questions about a topic of study and then researching and investigating to find answers to those questions. This occurs through field experiences, reading, learning from experts observations, discussions, and more. Students then share their learning with others in a variety of ways.

Our holistic approach to wellness helps children develop habits for healthy living that will last across their lives. Children develop skills across four domains:

Physical

• Moving body is various ways; developing gross motor skills
• Understanding what helps a body perform well

Mental

• Noticing what causes emotions and stress
• Developing a toolbelt of strategies to regulate emotions and stress

Intellectual

• Trying new activities
• Using strategies in games
• Reflecting on progress

Social

• Working with others in productive ways
• Being a good sport
• Showing appreciation for others