Welcome to third grade!
It is the beginning of many exciting and wonderful changes! We will begin quickly to develop the students’ cursive handwriting. This year, we are also excited to start a brand new reading series that has incorporated reading, writing and grammar skills. In addition to the skills and strategies necessary to prepare the students for the New York State ELA exam which is given in the fourth grade. In third grade, we identify the various parts of speech in depth, paragraph and composition writing, kinds of sentences, correct punctuation and letter writing, dictionary skills, and phonics skills.
In math, we will learn the skills necessary to prepare for the New York State Math exam in fourth grade. An overview of the skills for third grade includes addition/subtraction of greater numbers up to thousands place, reading/interpreting various types of graphs, rounding of numbers to the thousands place, measurement, geometry (including various polygons and types of lines), various problem-solving skills and the importance of multiplication and divisions as inverse operations. The students learn correct vocabulary and terminology for math usage and concepts learned throughout the year.
In social studies, we learn the various map skills and how to read and interpret all kinds of maps. We will learn about various landforms, map symbols, and map keys and locate longitude and latitude in addition to finding distances using a map scale, which incorporates using math concepts. In Science, we learn about animal and plant life cycles, their adaptations to their environment, physical matter and its changes, forms of energy, and our bodies and health issues, including eating healthy foods, and the food pyramid.
In religion, we attend Mass the first and third Monday of each month as a class. With the school community, we attend first Friday Mass as well as other liturgical celebrations throughout the year. We learn about the liturgical calendar, the four marks of the Catholic Church, the sacraments, the holy days of obligation, the various parts of the Mass and the beginning of the Church, focusing on the accomplishments of the early disciples of Christ.
Wishing all a happy third grade experience filled with learning and fun!