3rd Grade

Third grade is considered the moment in a student’s life when one makes the transition from ‘learning to read’ to ‘reading to learn’. This means that students are no longer learning the sounds of letters or how to sound out a word; instead, they are reading to learn about many different things in the world around them. They might be reading non fiction articles or books to research an animal they are interested in learning more about or reading nonfiction books or websites to learn about the culture of china, or they might be reading a realistic fiction story to enjoy the story, as well as learn how a character deals with her best friend moving away to a new school.

When reading to learn, often, students take in all the the new information they have gathered and then think about what they want to do with that information. This is where the student becomes the ‘teacher’. Students take the information and create a project. They go through the process of choosing the best method of presentation, considering the audience (who they will present to—their classmates? Second graders? Mrs. Hendrickson?) and then they get to work on their project. Projects take many shapes and forms- from powerpoint presentations to dioramas, to illustrated informational books- the options are endless!

Unit 1- Building the World of the Story
Focus Skills: Monitoring for Meaning, Determining Importance
 
Reading Workshop is a time of the day when students are directly taught how to be a ‘strong’ reader. The period might start with students looking at a shared text, reading small parts, and thinking together about ‘what is important’ in that part. Then together, students and teachers name what the author did- this ‘naming what the author did’- allows children to create a list of important places to read carefully. For example, the students’ list might include: read carefully when you notice a strong emotion, read carefully when the character’s problem pops up, read carefully when a character interacts with another character, etc. Once independent reading starts, students work to build reading stamina and practice reading to make meaning. Readers focus on a variety of reading skills such as determining importance, monitoring for meaning, inferring, etc. Most third graders enter the grade reading levels M/N and end the year reading level P.
 
Through individual reading conferences, guided reading groups, and independent practice, students actively work on becoming stronger readers. Teachers meet with students at least once a week to assess the child's reading through a conference and then teach him/her a specific strategy to work on. In a conference, students receive reading ‘jobs’ to work on until the next conference. Reading jobs are worked on daily, both in school and at home. The student records his/her reading job in various ways—in a reading notebook, on post-its, in a Powerpoint presentation, in a graphic organizer, in a voice recording- the ways to record a reading job are endless! Students also have an opportunity to create book projects that are a reflection of the book or highlight a specific reading skill worked on.
 
Students who master the focus skills at their independent level will move on to working on other skills such as prediction, inferring, synthesizing, and interpreting the text. When the teacher determines the student is ready, he/she will move on to the next reading level and begin to practice skills present at the next level. As students move up in reading levels, books become more complex and more inferring and interpreting is required.
 
To support your child at home, you can ask him/her to:

• show you their reading job & make sure they are practicing and recording their reading job
• talk about their current reading book- Who is the main character? What kind of person is he/she?  Can you show me parts in the text that support your character idea? What is he/she struggling with? What is his/her problem?  Who are the secondary characters? Are they helping or hurting the main character? How? Did your character change by the end of the story? How? Did he/she ‘grow up a little’? Did he/she learn a lesson?  
• read aloud to you to practice fluency- making their reading sound smooth and filled with expression

Unit 2-Nonfiction Reading & Writing Unit
This unit pairs nonfiction reading and writing. Through videos and short nonfiction texts, students explore adaptations animals have developed to survive in their environments. Students learn strategies for reading complex texts. Then they apply these strategies as they research an animal of their choice and write an informational paragraph(s) about the animal’s adaptations.
 
Animal Adaptation Independent Project: Students use their knowledge from the Non Fiction Reading & Writing Unit to create a project on an independently researched animal. Students create posters, powerpoint presentations or dioramas to teach their classmates about the animal’s habitat, adaptations and how the adaptations help the animal survive.  Third graders present these projects in class. They work to present their projects in a way that is engaging and informative-thinking both about their delivery (eye contact, loud speaking voice) and the content of their project(explaining and elaborating on what they learned in their research).

Curriculum Connected Field Trips:
During the Animal Adaptation Unit, third graders go on trips that complement their learning. They following trips are planned for the 2018-2019 school year:

• The Genovesi Environmental Study Center- Weapons of the Wild: Poison, Armor, Camouflage, Oh My! is an exciting workshop where students discover how organisms are able to survive and thrive by adapting to their environment in many ways. Students see firsthand the fascinating ways in which organisms use natural weaponry to defend themselves, hunt prey, or compete for resources to meet their particular needs within an ecosystem.
• The Prospect Park Zoo- ANIMAL DEFENSES & ADAPTATION TOUR:  On this trip, students will go on a guided tour of the zoo to discover how all animals need defenses to protect themselves from dangers in the wild! As students walk around the zoo, they are encouraged to be on the lookout for animals with weapons (like horns, sharp teeth and claws) that help in catching prey or protecting their families. Students also discover how animals use coloration, chemicals and amazing behaviors to keep their families safe (and keep from being eaten). 

​Unit 3- Character Idea Unit 
Focus Skills: Inferring- Developing Ideas about Characters across a book, Finding Text Evidence to Support Character Ideas (some students continue to work on the skills from Unit 1- Monitoring for Meaning & Determining Importance)

Our 3rd grade Character Idea Unit teaches students that readers get ideas about characters by paying attention to what characters say, do, and think. We remind students that this is just like in real life! We teach our readers that STRONG character ideas are ones that repeat across the book, not just show up in one place. For example, if we see a character saying, ‘I really want to make a going away present for my friend who is moving’ on page 14, then notice the character sharing her lunch with a student who forgot theirs on page 29, and finally notice the character thinking, I really hope I get to give my friend a big hug to show her how much I am going to miss her on page 44, we can develop the strong idea- ‘The character is compassionate or thoughtful.’  To support students in developing strong character ideas, students are taught vocabulary words they can use to describe characters- character traits. Students have a ‘bank’ of character trait words to pull out and use for support when reading, both at home, and at school.
 
Character Project: Throughout the unit, students develop ideas about the characters in their books and collect evidence that proves their idea. Students find parts of the text where the character says, does, or thinks something to prove their idea. At the end of the unit, students create a project that represents the character and the traits they have learned about them. 

Possible Character projects include:  Illustrated poster, a thinglink- https://www.thinglink.com/, fakebook page (https://www.classtools.net/FB/home-page), Character ‘Bag’ project, or another project thought up by the student!

To support your child at home, you can ask him/her to:

• show you his/her reading job & make sure he/she is practicing and recording it.
• tell you about the ideas he/she has about the characters in the book.  What ideas do you have about the character?  Can you show me parts in the text that support your character idea?  Is it a strong idea (can you show me more than 2 parts that support it?)
• read aloud to you to practice fluency- making their reading sound smooth and filled with expression 


​​Unit 4- Nonfiction Genre Study with Short Texts
At this point in the year, third graders learn strategies for reading different types of challenging non-fiction texts on a variety of topics- from unusual squirrels to helium blimps to sharks and dinosaurs. They practice using text features, finding the main idea of a text, and noticing the structure of a nonfiction text to help build understanding. They also practice finding the meaning of unknown words and phrases. All the while, students are engrossed in learning about the world around them. 
 
Third graders learn about the four different types of nonfiction texts:

• Expository NF (non-fiction with headings and text features)
• Narrative NF (non-fiction that reads like a story)
• Persuasive NF (non fiction that convinces the reader to do or believe something)
• Procedural NF (nonfiction that explains the steps of how to do something- like how to make slime​

Unit 5- Fiction Genre Study with Short Texts

​During this short unit, children read a variety of short fiction texts such realistic fiction, science fiction and fantasy short texts, as well as fables, myths, legends. As they read short fiction texts, they practice using complex text strategies to comprehend the text. 

As we all know, children have a tremendous amount to communicate! Throughout the day, our children are encouraged to write across subjects, but Writing Workshop is a time of the day when students work specifically to develop their writing skills. During Writing Workshop, children choose their own topic or idea within a specific unit of study (paragraphing, responding to literature, character essay, realistic fiction). Although they are in a common unit of study, they are encouraged to write about topics that are personally meaningful to them, while learning how to write in that particular genre. Teaching also focuses on grammar such as writing in complete sentences, using the appropriate punctuation, and spelling. 

Unit 1- Paragraphing 
Focus Skills:  Developing an idea, Organizing/Structuring a Paragraph, Elaborating- providing details that support your idea, Grammar- Complete Sentences, Capitalization, Punctuation, Spelling
 
The first Writing Unit focuses on learning how to write a paragraph about topic that is important to you. Children get the opportunity to write new paragraphs everyday, get feedback, and then revise the paragraph to make it better. By the end of the unit, students publish multiple paragraphs, setting them up for a successful year of writing.
 
Unit 2-Nonfiction Reading & Writing Unit
This unit pairs nonfiction reading and writing. Through videos and short nonfiction texts, students explore adaptations animals have developed to survive in their environments. Students learn strategies for reading complex texts. Then apply those strategies as they research an animal of their choice and write an informational paragraph(s) about the animal’s adaptations.
 
Animal Adaptation Independent Project: Students use their knowledge from the Non Fiction Reading & Writing Unit to create a project on an independently researched animal. Students can create posters, powerpoint presentations or dioramas to teach their classmates about the animal’s habitat, adaptations and how the adaptations help the animal survive. Third graders present these projects in class. They work to present their projects in a way that is engaging and informative-thinking both about their delivery (eye contact, loud speaking voice) and the content of their project (explaining and elaborating on what they learned in their research).

Curriculum Connected Field Trips:
During the Animal Adaptation Unit, Third graders visit:

• The Genovesi Environmental Study Center to take part in Weapons of the Wild: Poison, Armor, Camouflage, Oh My!- an exciting workshop where students discover how organisms are able to survive and thrive by adapting to their environment in many ways. Students see firsthand the fascinating ways in which organisms use natural weaponry to defend themselves, hunt prey, or compete for resources to meet their particular needs within an ecosystem.​
• The Prospect Park Zoo to take part in the ANIMAL DEFENSES & ADAPTATION TOUR:  On this trip, students will walk go on a guided tour of the zoo to discover how all animals need defenses to protect themselves from dangers in the wild! As students walk around the zoo, they will be encouraged to be on the lookout for animals with weapons (like horns, sharp teeth and claws) that help in catching prey or protecting their families. Students also discover how animals use coloration, chemicals and amazing behaviors to keep their families safe (and keep from being eaten). 

Unit 3- Character Idea Essay-
In this unit, third graders learn to write character idea essays. The unit begins with examining a mentor character essay to notice and name the characteristics of a character essay. Teachers spend time leading students through shared reading & writing activities with short texts.  With teacher guidance, students practice developing ideas about characters and finding evidence to support their ideas. Together, teacher and students co-write a character essay from beginning to end- planning it, drafting it with examples and text details, and revising it. Then students write their own character idea essay on a short text- they practice finding parts of the text that support the character idea, plan their essay, and draft and revise their essay, all the while making sure they are using strong examples and text details that support their idea. By the end of the unit, third graders will publish their first ESSAY!

Unit 4- Writing About Reading
During this unit, third graders learn how to write short responses on a variety of non fiction articles. First, students learn how to  understand what the question is asking, then students practice going back in the text to re-read and find the answer. Finally, students learn how to answer the question using the A-D-D strategy or the R-A-D-D strategy.

A-D-D strategy
Answer the question in the first sentence.
D- give one text detail to support your answer.
D- Give another text detail to support your answer.
​
R-A-D-D strategy
Restate & Answer the question in the first sentence. 
D- give one text detail to support your answer.
D- Give another text detail to support your answer. 

Students use a rubric of 0-1-2 to self assess their writing. In class, we l look at a variety of answers and practice scoring these based on the rubric.  This allows students to further reflect on their own work and decide what they did well and what they can do better next time.
​
Unit 5- Become an Author! Realistic Fiction Writing
In their final writing unit , third graders write their very own realistic fiction story! Students go through the process of developing ideas, drafting, revising, editing and publishing.

Third graders start by brainstorming different realistic fiction story ideas- the stories will be based on characters who are around their age- 7, 8, or 9 years old, so their story ideas will have to be realistic problems a child their age would encounter. Then they spend time developing a blurb summary of their story and their main character- what is the character’s likes/dislikes? What do they look like? What is the character's flaw (negative part of the character’s personality) that is causing their problem?

After developing the main character a bit, they plan their story using a story mountain or story timeline that shows the important parts of their story. Third graders begin to see that authors make tons of  decisions about how their stories will go! How does the problem get revealed in the beginning? What attempts will the main character make? What will happen to help the character solve their problem? Will the problem get solved or will there be a resolution where the character doesn’t get what they want, but they learn a lesson?

Once finished drafting, third graders go through the process of revising their stories-where they learn different ways authors make their writing more interesting for the reader. Then they edit and publish their realistic fiction story. 

In September of third grade students will have an opportunity to review key word study concepts learned in second grade. These are: vowel teams such as ai, ay, ee, ea, ey, suffixes such as -s, -es, -ing, -ed, -er, -est, reading and spelling of two syllable words, and reviewing the rules for syllable division.

A second unit of word study begins in December.

Third Grade Social Studies Curriculum
Children explore cultures around the world, making connections between our lives in America (and the different cultures in America) and the lives of others around the world. Children learn that the world is made up of many different cultures to be celebrated, while noticing the similarities and differences between cultures. Units are planned that celebrate similarities and differences among different groups of people.
 
Each Social Studies Unit explores the following topics:

• Geography (Where in the world is the country located? What are major landforms, animals, crops in the country?)

• Economy (How do people make a living?)

• History (What was ancient life like?)

• Culture (Family roles, home life, festivals & celebrations, music, art, dance,  transportation, school, language,  sports & exercise)

• Government (How is the government of the country similar and/or different to the government in America?)

China Unit 
Our Social Studies units contain learning activities that give students background knowledge on different countries and cultures around the world. Background knowledge is built through reading fiction and nonfiction texts, viewing video clips, and experiencing connected field trips.
 
Once students have sufficient background knowledge, they become researchers by developing research questions on a specific topic within the culture studied. Students conduct research using websites, videos, nonfiction texts, and books. While researching, students learn various nonfiction reading and note-taking strategies, all the while thinking about how they can teach others what they have learned. Then students get to the work of creating a project that can teach others. Projects vary from powerpoint presentations to nonfiction books, posters, or dioramas. At conclusion of the unit, projects are shared in a celebration.

Online Research Website for P.S. 172 Third Graders:
CLICK on the following link to access P. S. 172's 3rd grade China resources online:  portaportal.com/
Once directed to the portaportal research site, enter 172china as the 'Guest Name' in the box on the right.  P.S. 172 students have access to child-safe & child-friendly, categorized websites about China. 

Curriculum Connected Field Trips & Workshops:
In October, educators from Anthropology Arts will visit our 3rd grade classes to conduct a Chines Dragon Robe workshop. In this workshop, our children will learn all about the detailed robes worn by the emperors of China. They will learn about the special symbols, colors and details that only the emperors were allowed to wear. After studying the symbols and details, the children will create their own detailed dragon robe!

​China Celebration- Save the date!!  Tuesday, January 8, 2019- 2 p.m. P.S. 172 Auditorium
P.S. 172 third graders invite their families to celebrate the learning that has taken place throughout the unit on China. Third graders will share research projects about China, as well as perform songs and dances that celebrate Chinese culture led by Mr. Mannino and Ms. Todras. 

Egypt Unit
Our Egypt unit contains learning activities that give students background knowledge on the geography, culture, and history of Egypt. Through reading fiction and nonfiction texts, studying pictures, videos, and artifacts and experiencing connected field trips- both real world and virtual, students will explore the questions:  How do culture, geography, and history shape a community?  How is Egypt similar and different to the United States of America and China, which was studied earlier this year.
 
Once students have sufficient background knowledge, they will become researchers by developing research questions on a specific topic. Then they will conduct research using websites, videos, nonfiction texts, and books. While researching, students learn various nonfiction reading and note-taking strategies, all the while thinking about how they can teach others what they have learned. Then students will create a project that to teach others. Projects vary from powerpoint presentations to nonfiction books, posters, models, or dioramas. At the conclusion of the unit, projects are shared in a celebration.

Unit 1 multiplication and division

In this unit students will begin by using repeated addition to find the total sum. As students begin to notice patterns, we will move to arrays and more efficient multiplication facts. Students will understand the difference between factors and product. They will begin to differentiate the factors between the size of the groups and the number of groups. From there, students will learn how multiplication facts and division facts are related. Students will then apply their skills to solve word problems. They will use drawings, equations and get strategy to solve word problems. Get stands for g= number of groups, e= how many in each group and t= total. By the end of the unit, students will learn the distributive property. They will learn how to decompose units to multiply.

Unit 2 place value, rounding and problem solving

In this unit, students extend their work with whole numbers. The place value chart is fundamental to this unit. Building upon their previous knowledge of bundling, students learn that 10 hundred can be composed into 1 thousand, and therefore, 30 hundred can be composed into 3 thousands because a digit’s value is 10 times what it would be one place to its right. Students learn to recognize that in a number such as 7,777, each 7 has a value that is 10 times the value of its neighbor to the immediate right. One thousand can be decomposed into 10 hundreds; therefore 7 thousands can be decomposed into 70 hundreds. Students will use place value as a basis for comparing whole numbers. Although this is not a new concept, it becomes more complex as the numbers become larger. Comparison leads directly into rounding, where their skill with isolating units is applied and extended. Rounding to the nearest ten and hundred. Students then use this knowledge to solve word problems with estimation, addition and subtraction. ​

Unit 3: fractions as numbers on the number line

In this unit students extend and deepen grade 2 practice with equal shares to understanding fractions as equal partitions of a whole. They will use the area model and number line to represent the fractions. Their knowledge becomes more formal as they work with area models and the number line to demonstrate their fractions. Students will work with fractional units of halves, thirds, fourths, sixths, and eighths. Students use fractional number lines to partition, place, count, and compare fractions. They notice that some fractions with different units are placed at the exact same point on the number line, and therefore, are equal. By the end of the unit, students will begin to reason about fraction sizes which will help them compare fractions. Students will understand that fractions with the same numerator and a larger denominator are actually smaller pieces of the whole.​

Unit 4: collecting and displaying data

In this unit, students will generate categorical data, organize it, and then represent it in a variety of tables and graphs such as pictographs and bar graphs. Students will use skip-counting and multiplication strategies to analyze different graphs. Students will use the graphs to solve word problems by analyzing the graphs. ​

Unit 5: multiplication and area
In this unit, students will explore how to figure out the area of a two dimensional figure. Students will relate finding area to arrays. Students will conceptualize that area is the amount of two dimensional surface that is contained in a plane figure. Students progress from using square tile manipulatives to drawing their own area models and manipulate rectangular arrays to concretely demonstrate the arithmetic properties. Students will explore rectangles and figure out which rectangles cover the most area depending on the different dimensions of the rectangles. At the end of the unit, students will design a simple floor plan of their bedrooms given a specific area.

Unit 6: time
In this unit, students begin by learning to tell and write time to the nearest minute using analog and digital clocks. They understand time as a continuous measurement through exploration with stopwatches, and use the number line, a continuous measurement model, as a tool for counting intervals of minutes within 1 hour. Students see that an analog clock is a portion of the number line shaped into a circle. They use both the number line and clock to represent addition and subtraction problems involving intervals of minutes within 1 hour.

Unit 7: geometry and measurement word problems
In this unit, students have intensive practice with word problems, as well as hands-on investigation experiences with geometry and perimeter. This unit begins with solving one- and two-step word problems based on a variety of topics studied throughout the year, using all four operations. Next students explore geometry. Students tessellate to bridge geometry experience with the study of perimeter. Students solve word problems involving area and perimeter using all four operations.