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The Third Grade Curriculum
LANGUAGE ARTS
READING
Concepts covered in the 3rd grade reading curriculum are the mastery of main idea/topic sentences in a paragraph and the important facts and unimportant facts in a paragraph. Students should be able to identify and define prefixes and suffixes as well as locate root/base words; write a summary of a story; locate an answer and prove it in the text; learn the difference between fact and opinion; read for content; sequence events; understand Roman Numerals and their use in reading and writing; learn rules for dividing words into syllables; introduce primary accents; count syllables in words; and write a book report summary.
WRITING
The third grade writing curriculum emphasizes the difference between creative writing and essay writing. Each child completes one creative writing story per month with and emphasis on including a beginning, middle, and end in each story. Additionally, creative writing stories are required to have a problem, complications, climax, and resolution. Stories should also contain narrative writing and dialogue. Students learn the basics of essay writing through book reports that are assigned throughout the year. Students are encouraged to recognize that essays have a beginning, middle, and end but do not have dialogue. Additionally, students practice short essay writing by rewriting the question with a main idea and details.
ENGLISH, GRAMMAR, MECHANICS, USAGE
Concepts covered in the third grade English curriculum include to learn and review rules for capitalization and punctuation and to introduce the use of quotation marks, parts of speech, articles, direct objects, predicates, and subjects. Additionally, the curriculum focuses on ensuring the mastery of the four kinds of sentences, locating common and proper nouns, the twenty-one helping verbs, subject and object pronouns, locating a verb in a sentence, learning to indent for paragraphs, regular and irregular verbs, present and past tense verbs, and singular and plural possessive nouns. Students are exposed to and learn the parts of a friendly letter, how to write a letter, how to use a dictionary, alphabetical order of words, editing work, and addressing envelopes.
PENMANSHIP
The third grade penmanship curriculum emphasizes the ability to write upper and lower case cursive letters, and to write words, sentences, paragraphs, and reports neatly. Additionally, the curriculum focuses on encouraging students to slant cursive letters correctly, to use proper spacing between words, and to produce readable manuscripts. Students also learn the proper connections for the cursive letters “l, o, v, and w.” Paragraph spacing and editing work are important skills learned in third grade as well.
SPELLING
The third grade spelling curriculum focuses on ensuring that students can spell correctly sentences of level 9-12 in the San Mateo County Spelling Guide and to be able to transfer correct spelling to their daily work, creative writing and book reports. Also, third grade students are able to put any group of words in alphabetical order. Students complete spelling unit tests (1-13 sentences) every Friday. Starting in January, students complete 5th grade bonus sentences every week on Friday.
MATHEMATICS
Concepts covered in the third grade mathematics curriculum include: addition and subtraction facts; place value (including millions and hundred thousandths); time and money; addition (6 digit numbers with carrying); subtraction (6 digit numbers with borrowing); data, graphs, and probability; customary measurement; multiplication with one, two, and three digit multipliers; metric measurement; reducing fractions, changing improper fractions, introducing decimals; division with one, two, and three divisors; and problem solving in all of the above areas
SOCIAL STUDIES
Concepts covered in the third grade social studies curriculum revolve around communities of today and yesterday and a comparison of communities throughout the world, such as the communities of the Anasazi, St. Augustine, Plymouth, Seattle, San Francisco, Washington D.C., Pittsburgh, London, Atlanta, and various dairy or farming areas. Communities are classified by rural, urban, and suburban. Students are encouraged to critically think about ways that communities can solve crimes, disease, and poverty. Services and goods are discussed, along with the types of leaders, rules, problems, laws, and communication systems of different communities.
STUDY SKILLS
The third grade study skills curriculum emphasizes the use of a calendar and an index, table of contents, glossary, and title page. Textbook study aids such as bold type, charts, graphs and pictures are discussed. Additionally, students are exposed to different strategies to use when taking a multiple-choice test, how to write short essays for tests, and how to assess time management skills. The curriculum further emphasizes cause and effect relationships, organizing class papers, using the process of elimination and trial/error, establishing a regular schedule of study time, understanding maps, flowcharts, time lines, tables, charts and graphs, and outlining. Additionally, students are exposed to developing an informal paper.