- Penny Creek Elementary School
- Third Grade Subjects
Connery, Shelly
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Reading:
Students have access to our textbook, Reach by National Geographic. Please go to everettsd.org, click the students tab, click on Canvas, then login to MyNGConnect. There are engaging vocabulary and phonics games associated with each unit.
Course Description
Third grade students will build their reading, writing, speaking and listening, and language skills and knowledge, as defined by the State Standards, using the district aligned curriculum Reach for Reading. There are eight, four-week thematic units, that are built around science or social studies topics. To help students make thoughtful connections between texts, themselves, and the world, they explore the thematic “Big Question” through collaborative discussion, writing and performance tasks. Students develop proficiency in citing text evidence and producing analytic writing. Writing includes routines to develop fluency, model the process, collaborate and scaffold, and write independently. Students learn to construct responses to text and integrate sources into multiple modes of writing including narrative, opinion and informative writing projects. Students develop language and vocabulary skills as they participate in explicit instruction and consistent routines. Differentiated small group instruction, using authentic text, meets the needs of all students. Whole group, small group, and independent practice ensure that students meet the demands of the Common Core. Explicit cursive handwriting and keyboarding instruction provides another strong communication foundation.
Poppy Bookstudy: What characteristics make a hero? Students analyze characters and build comprehension and understanding of how they change over time. Students make meaning by developing vocabulary and writing a superhero story.
Unit 1: How do people help each other? Students focus on reading, comprehending, and analyzing a variety of text types. Writing focus: Narrative.
Unit 2: What happens when nature loses its balance? Students focus on strategies such as compare/contrast and cause/effect to comprehend and analyze stories. Writing focus: Informational.
Unit 3: What is so amazing about plants? Students focus on making inferences while reading a variety of texts. Writing focus: Opinion.
Unit 4: What's the best way to get things done? Students focus on describing story elements and themes. Writing focus: Opinion.
Unit 5: What causes matter to change? Students learn about nonfiction text structures to comperhend and analyze texts. Writing focus: Informational.
Unit 6: How can we preserve our traditions? Students use visualization to analyze and comprehend a variety of text types. Writing focus: Informational.
Unit 7: What forces can change the earth? Students learn to draw conclusions, determine author's purpose, and synthesize information. Writing focus: Narrative.
Unit 8: What tools can we use to achieve our goals? Students review and use reading strategies to comprehend and analyze a variety of texts. Writing focus: Narrative
Math:
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In Grade 3, instructional time should focus on four critical areas: (1) developing understanding of multiplication and division and strategies for multiplication and division within 100; (2) developing understanding of fractions, especially unit fractions (fractions with numerator 1); (3) developing understanding of the structure of rectangular arrays and of area; and (4) describing and analyzing two-dimensional shapes.
- Students develop an understanding of the meanings of multiplication and division of whole numbers through activities and problems involving equal-sized groups, arrays, and area models; multiplication is finding an unknown product, and division is finding an unknown factor in these situations. For equal-sized group situations, division can require finding the unknown number of groups or the unknown group size. Students use properties of operations to calculate products of whole numbers, using increasingly sophisticated strategies based on these properties to solve multiplication and division problems involving single-digit factors. By comparing a variety of solution strategies, students learn the relationship between multiplication and division.
- Students develop an understanding of fractions, beginning with unit fractions. Students view fractions in general as being built out of unit fractions, and they use fractions along with visual fraction models to represent parts of a whole. Students understand that the size of a fractional part is relative to the size of the whole. For example, 1/2 of the paint in a small bucket could be less paint than 1/3 of the paint in a larger bucket, but 1/3 of a ribbon is longer than 1/5 of the same ribbon because when the ribbon is divided into 3 equal parts, the parts are longer than when the ribbon is divided into 5 equal parts. Students are able to use fractions to represent numbers equal to, less than, and greater than one. They solve problems that involve comparing fractions by using visual fraction models and strategies based on noticing equal numerators or denominators.
- Students recognize area as an attribute of two-dimensional regions. They measure the area of a shape by finding the total number of same-size units of area required to cover the shape without gaps or overlaps, a square with sides of unit length being the standard unit for measuring area. Students understand that rectangular arrays can be decomposed into identical rows or into identical columns. By decomposing rectangles into rectangular arrays of squares, students connect area to multiplication, and justify using multiplication to determine the area of a rectangle.
- Students describe, analyze, and compare properties of two-dimensional shapes. They compare and classify shapes by their sides and angles and connect these with definitions of shapes. Students also relate their fraction work to geometry by expressing the area of part of a shape as a unit fraction of the whole.
Science:During this year-long sequence of 3rd grade science units, students will engage in applying the NGSS Science and Engineering Practices and Crosscutting Concepts to the following life science, physical science and engineering design core ideas.
Structures of Life - Big Idea: Plants and animals have structures that serve different functions in growth, survival, and reproduction. Seeds have different structures and properties. Plants continue their growth cycle. Animals (snails and beetles) have specific structures and behaviors (adaptations) to improve their chances of survival in their environments.
Sound - Big Idea: Sound is one of the tools most living things use to understand the world. A variety of sounds are present in our environment; each of these sounds has a source. Sound has different characteristics, including pitch and volume. Sounds are caused by vibrations; different-size vibrations produce different sounds. The size of a vibrating object affects the pitch it makes. When more force is used to make a sound, the volume increases. Air and a variety of other materials can transmit sound; Sound (waves) can travel through some materials better than others.
EIE: Designing Bridges - To Get to the Other Side - Big Idea: Civil engineers apply the properties of building materials, the connections between force, balance and stability, and the engineering design process to design strong and stable bridges. Engineers must consider criteria and constraints when solving design problems. Forces act on structures in many different directions. Two equivalent forces acting on a structure in opposite directions will balance one another. Different bridge types with unique shapes can support different amounts of weight. Materials can be made in different ways to solve different design tasks. Engineers use the Engineering Design Process to design solutions to problems.
Throughout these units, students will apply the following NGSS Science and Engineering Practices and Crosscutting Concepts:
- NGSS Science and Engineering Practices: Asking Questions and Defining Problems, Developing and Using Models, Planning and Carrying Out Investigations, Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions, Analyzing and Interpreting Data, Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking, Engaging in Argument from Evidence
- NGSS Crosscutting Concepts: Patterns, Cause and Effect, Structure and Function, Systems and System Models, Energy and Matter, Stability and Change, Influence of engineering, technology and science on society
Social Studies:
In third grade, students begin to explore more complex concepts and ideas from civics, economics, geography, and history as they study varied backgrounds of people living in Washington and the rest of the United States. Emphasis is on cultures in the United States, including the study of American Indians. Students examine these cultures from the past and in the present and the impact they have had in shaping our contemporary society. They begin to look at issues and events from more than one perspective.
Unit 1: First Nations of North America
Essential and Guiding Questions:
• How do people from differing cultural groups and ways of life work together to solve problems?
• Who were the first people to live in North America, how did they live, and how do they live today?
• How are Native American cultures similar and different?
• How do stories, legends, and the arts serve as expressions of cultural traditions?
• How and why did the Native American cultures change over time?
• How were Native American cultures affected by exchanges with non-native peoples?Unit 2: Cultures of North America
Essential and Guiding Questions:
• How do we affect our environment? How does the environment affect us?
• How do we meet our needs and wants?
• What should you know about your neighbors?
• How does the geographic region influence culture?
• How are Mexico, Canada, and the United States similar and different?Unit 3: Cultures in Our Community
Essential and Guiding Questions:
• What makes up a culture? Why is it important?
• What are the critical attributes of culture (cultural universals)?
• How are cultures similar and different?
• What can we learn about ourselves by studying cultures in other places?
• What cultures have contributed to your community?
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