Welcome to Third Grade
Third grade is the pivotal year when students transition from learning to read to reading to learn.
They also collaborate to design and create solutions to protect people, property, and animals from hazardous weather. A favorite field trip is a visit to Kule Loklo, a recreated Coast Miwok village, in Point Reyes as part of the Native American Community study. Third grade students are the school sign makers, and they take their school job very seriously as evidenced in the details in the signage around the lower school campus.
Third Grade Social and Emotional Standards (C.A.R.E.S.)
- Cooperation: The ability to establish new relationships, to maintain positive relationships and friendships, to avoid social isolation, to resolve conflicts, to accept differences and to be a contributing member of the classroom and community in which one lives, works, learns, and plays
- Assertiveness: The ability to take initiative, to stand up for one’s idea without hurting or negating others, to seek help, to persevere with a challenging task, and to recognize one’s individual self as separate from the environment, circumstances, or conditions one is in
- Responsibility: The ability to motivate oneself to act and follow through on expectations; to define a problem, consider the consequences, and choose a positive solution
- Empathy: The ability to recognize, appreciate, or understand another’s state of mind or emotions, to be receptive to new ideas and perspectives, and to see, appreciate, and value differences and diversity in others
- Self-Control: The ability to recognize and regulate one’s thoughts, emotions, and behaviors in order to be successful in the moment and remain on a successful trajectory
Third Grade Visual Art
- Learns and utilizes various color schemes to create value, shade and tints
- Demonstrates an understanding of the elements and principles of design
- Demonstrates patience and understanding for the process of observing and creating
- Self directs creative process, perseveres and explores solutions to art problems
- Discusses thoughts, feelings and experiences expressed in artwork; participates and is open to peer feedback about creative process
- Identifies and compares work of art that connects to personal life, other cultures, time/place and community
- Demonstrates an understanding of the safe and proficient use of materials and tools for a variety of artistic process
Third Grade Library and Information Technology
- Understands the general purpose of the library catalog.
- Performs a basic search of the automated library catalog by title, author, subject and keyword.
- Understands the information on spine labels, including call numbers.
- Understands general reference resources, including dictionary, thesaurus, atlas, and encyclopedia.
- Locates information in texts by using the organizational parts of a book, (title, table of contents, chapter headings, glossary, index).
- Evaluates and analyzes information for relevance, currency, credibility and accuracy.
- Demonstrates ethical, legal and safe use of information in print, media, and online resources.
- Defines cyberbullying and its effects.
- Reads widely and uses various media for information, personal interest and lifelong learning.
- Listens, views and reads stories, poems and plays
Third Grade Spanish
- Uses basic salutations and expressions of courtesy
- Uses physical gestures to infer meaning
- Responds accurately to yes/no and either/or questions
- Uses previously learned vocabulary in the target language, including Spanish speaking countries, school supplies, school subjects, transportation and foods
- Communicates on some familiar topics using basic phrases
- Demonstrates comprehension of simple sentences and/or phrases in the target language
- Comprehends basic classroom directions provided in the target language
- Expresses likes, dislikes and emotions in the target language
- Practices cultural components through music, games and celebrations
Third Grade Music
- Sings unison and two-part canons with developmentally appropriate accuracy
- Reads and plays rhythms correctly in simple meters
- Demonstrates understanding of musical form in individual and group composition exercises
- Achieves beginning level soprano recorder technique
- Reads notes on the treble clef music staff while playing soprano recorder
- Develops beginning level awareness of effective ensemble playing
- Incorporates expressive musical qualities in ensemble performances
- Demonstrates a willingness to improvise
- Performs a variety of multicultural and folk dances with enthusiasm
Third Grade Physical Education
- Shows awareness of teammates during games
- Passes an object to a moving target
- Dribbles with dominant and nondominant sides
- Throws a ball with increased focus on accuracy
- Works collaboratively with teammates during strategy games - communicates, listens, expresses opinions
- Shows increased understanding of a Warm-up/Stretch
- Demonstrates respect for individual differences in physical abilities
- Participates effectively and demonstrates effort in sports games and fitness activities
- Engages in sportsmanship and accepts wins and losses with awareness of others
Third Grade Mathematics
A Blue Oak math classroom features a combination of whole-group, small-group, and independent activities that are problem centered. In third grade, students focus on multiplication, fractions, and area. Cooperative games and problem solving are key elements of the math curriculum.
- Communicates and represents mathematical thinking
- Reads and writes numbers to 10,000 using numerals and expanded form
- Rounds whole numbers to the nearest 10 or 100
- Fluently adds within 1,000
- Fluently subtracts within 1,000
- Demonstrates a conceptual understanding of multiplication
- Solves multiplication facts up to 9 x 9
- Demonstrates a conceptual understanding of division
- Writes and uses decimals in money format
- Represents fractions as parts of a whole, parts of a group and on a numberline
- Recognizes and creates models of simple equivalent fractions
- Compares fraction inequalities with sketches, numbers or words
- Calculates area and perimeter of squares and rectangles
- Compares and contrasts different types of regular polygons
- Identifies right, acute, and obtuse angles in geometric shapes
- Measures and estimates for length, weight, volume and time using the appropriate tool
- Represents, interprets and makes predictions from data in a scaled graph
- Solve two-step word problems using the four operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication & division)
- Solves word problems involving addition and subtraction of time intervals in minutes
Third Grade Literacy
Speaking and Listening
- Engages effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups and teacher-led) with diverse partners
- Comes to discussions prepared, having read or studied required material
- Follows agreed-upon rules for discussion
- Asks questions about information from a speaker
- Reports on a topic or text using appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details
- Speaks clearly and at an understandable pace
Reading
In third grade the reading focus shifts from learning to read to reading to learn. The Reading Workshop developed by Lucy Calkins is used as a guide to structure the year of reading units. Students immerse themselves in fiction books while working on word solving and vocabulary development. Then they address essential skills for reading expository nonfiction, and students integrate with social studies content to identify main ideas and think critically. Finally, students turn to texts as their teachers, working in clubs to gather, synthesize, and organize information as they integrate with social studies content.
- Reads and comprehends on-grade level texts
- Recognizes the setting, plot, characters and author’s purpose in a text
- Decodes multi-syllable words and irregularly spelled words
- Determines the meaning of words and phrases using context cues
- Uses text features to locate information relevant to a given topic
- Determines the main idea gained from maps, photographs, and words in a text
Writing
Third grade continues with the writing process to create personal narratives, longer expository writing, opinion essays, and other creative pieces during Writers Workshop. Writing at this level is now mostly in paragraph format. Both second and third grade students are empowered to pursue their own inquiry research topics based on the broader subject being covered in class.
- Writes regularly and thoughtfully in their writer’s notebook
- Writes a variety of genres and uses strategies for different audiences
- Knows and uses the stages of the writing process
- Listens to others’ writing and offers feedback
- Groups writing in paragraph format (topic sentence, supporting details, closing sentence)
- Demonstrates stamina and uses writing time appropriately
- Correctly uses capital letters
- Correctly uses punctuation
- Uses conventional spelling for grade-appropriate words in own writing
- Writes legibly
Third Grade Science
- Models interactions and changes in a specific environment
- Uses observation and questioning skills in science inquiry
- Makes predictions and draws conclusions based on observed patterns
- Collects and records data with pictures, numbers and words
- Organizes and uses data with scientific vocabulary to explain results
- Conducts simple experiments and follows directions using scientific tools
Third Grade Social Studies
- Explores a variety of historical symbols from different perspectives
- Investigates democratic systems
- Creates a geographic model
- Uses map elements to identify geographical features and impact on culture
- Compare and contrast differing perspectives
- Analyzes and evaluates historical reports