3rd Grade – 1 Year

Description

Language Arts A&B:

This Third Grade Language Arts course will teach students to reading comprehension skill and strategies to help them become stronger readers. Students will also master weekly spelling and vocabulary words and grammar concepts that will help them become stronger writers. All Common Core Third Grade LA standards are met in this course.

Science A&B:

Semester A

Third grade science introduces students to experimentation as they journey through the earth and its many miracles.  They will begin by learning about the earth, the sun and the moon.  By participating in simple experiments students will explore the water cycle, gravity, the weather and it’s patterns, various types of terrain, and the role of plants in the production of oxygen and their importance to human survival.  Learners will expand their knowledge through video, pictures, short readings, projects, and hands on experiments.  Learners will understand that experiments require the use of instruments, observation, recording, and drawing evidence based conclusions.  Grade 3 science provides students with the opportunity to expand their minds and see for themselves the way that science is a part of their everyday lives.

Semester B

Semester B of third grade science begins with the students writing a poem about the seasonal cycles.  The learners continue with root formation, the interdependence of plants and humans, biomes of land and sea, extreme weather, rocks, vertebrates and invertebrates, as well as extinction.  All of these lessons are taught using video, projects, and experimentation.  Semester B asks learners to look a bit deeper into things they encounter such as the ocean and weather.

Social Studies A&B:

Semester A

In third grade, social studies students will begin to explore the basic fundamentals of social studies including geography, civics, and economics. Learners will begin by looking at the beginning of civilization and examining the ancient Hebrew civilization, the Phoenicians, and the Kush tribe of ancient Africa. They will then move on to examining the Native American tribes of the Cherokee, Sioux, and Hopi. Students will also look at the first explorers of the Americas and learn about the beginning of the United States. In the first semester students will learn important geographical factors in the ancient civilizations, Native American tribes and in the developing United States. Students will increase their skills by creating maps and looking at the landscapes. They will take a close look at their own personal heritage by mapping their ancestry. Learners will follow a step-by-step approach for successfully completing each lesson, which includes storytelling, repetition, projects, arts and crafts, and videos.

Semester B

The second semester begins with introducing learners to economics and the role that money plays in every civilization. Students learn the difference between natural, human, and capital resources. They also examine the production of goods, trade, specialization, and interdependence, and come to understand the importance that each individual plays in a society’s economy. Learners are introduced to Civics by discussing the governmental structure of the Ancient Hebrews and Phoenicians. The purpose and importance of laws and how they are enacted as well as the establishment of government are shown through stories of the Ancient Phoenicians and Native Americans. The course ends by discussing the purpose and nature of government as it relates to the United States.

Math A&B:

Semester A

During the first semester, students will build flexibility with numbers as they master addition and subtraction facts as well as multiplication and division facts. Students will understand relationships between addition and subtraction, multiplication and addition and multiplication and division as they learn to borrow, carry, and regroup in order to find sums and differences of two whole numbers up to 10,000. Students will also comprehend the place value of base ten numbers up to 1,000,000 in order to find patterns and make estimations. Lastly, they will implement a 4-step approach to solving problems and express numbers differently including translating them into Roman Numerals or expressing them as ordinal numbers.

Semester B

During the second semester, students will explore concepts of measurement including linear measurement, weight, volume, temperature, and time.  They will also recognize, compare, and convert fractions.  Students will write amounts of money and make change using as few coins as possible. Lastly, students will examine lines, polygons, and solid figures as they are introduced to basic concepts of geometry.