Curriculum
Language Arts
The Language Arts Program includes reading, writing, and the study of literature. The components of the program emphasize the development of those skills that allow students to read with fluency, comprehend and interpret written materials, communicate well and listen and speak effectively. Students will write legibly using cursive. They will apply spelling knowledge and grammar rules in their writing. Third graders will use the writing process of pre-writing, organizing, writing, revising, editing, and producing a final draft for their writing activities. The skills acquired and understood are applied and reinforced in all content areas.
Reading
Harcourt School Publishers, Storytown, 2008
StoryTown: Twists and Turns and Breaking New Ground
www.thinkcentral.com
Through the classroom reading program, students experience authentic literature in the form of poetry, folktales, nonfiction, realistic and historical fiction, biographies, and plays. Reading fluency will develop and improve as students are presented with the following skills:
Applying phonetic and structural analysis
Using word identification strategies such as context clues and prior knowledge
Developing vocabulary
Understanding story elements - characters, setting, events, problem, theme, and resolution
Employing reading strategies - cause and effect, compare and contrast, predictions, sequencing,
making inferences, summarizing, drawing conclusions
Distinguishing fact from opinion
Using graphic organizers
Self-appraising and self-correcting while reading
Students will
Recognize a broad range of reading materials
Read independently for 20 - 25 minutes
Read as a group the following novels: Poppy, Charlotte's Web,
Mr. Popper's Penguins, Stone Fox, James and the Giant Peach
Participate in small groups to read a variety of chapter books
English and Spelling
Materials from Harcourt School Publishers, Storytown, Edition 2008
StoryTown: Twists and Turns and Breaking New Ground
Students will
Practice with Daily Language activities
Recognize simple subject and predicate
Construct complete sentences with subject/verb agreement
Learn appropriate capitalization and punctuation
Recognize parts of speech - nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives
Write paragraphs with a topic/main idea sentence and
supporting details in accordance with Diocesan requirements
Produce a variety of types of writing for multiple purposes
to entertain, explain, report
Handwriting:
Zaner-Bloser, Edition 2008Mathematics
Harcourt Math, Illinois Edition, 2006
www.harcourtschool.com/index.html
This series provides a research-based instruction that practices a wide range of strategies for skills and problem solving. The activities are designed with differentiated instruction to help with all student needs. The series offers tools to meet Diocesan, National and state-specific Standards. There is a technology component of practice, reteach, and reinforcement activities.
Students will
Read and write numbers to the hundred thousands
Read, write, and compare 2 place decimals
Estimate with benchmark numbers
Skip count by whole numbers and compare and order numbers to the
hundred thousands
Find mean, median, and mode
Identify place value and number sense to the hundred thousands
Identify and complete patterns
Develop problem solving skills
Master all basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts
Add and subtract multi-digit numbers
Multiply a multi-digit number by a single-digit number
Divide by single-digit numbers
Fractions -Add, subtract, like denominators, order, compare, unlike
denominators
Measure using standard and metric systems
Compute perimeter and area
Identify the volume of standard containers
Compare and measure mass
Tell time to the minute and determine elapse time
Count money and make change
Identify angles and lines of symmetry
Identify spatial elements sides, vertices, edges, and faces
Identify parallel, perpendicular, and intersecting lines
Work with graphs - ordered pairs, tally, create, read, and write
observations
Recognize and work with pictographs, bar graphs, and line graphs
Religion
Silver Burdett Ginn, Edition 2008, Blest Are We
Silver Burdett Ginn, Fully Alive
Explaining God's Word, Sunday's Reading
www.blestarewe.com
Third graders will learn through stories, activities, Scripture, prayers, discussion, and reflection about their Catholic faith. Catholic values are discussed and integrated not only in Religion, but also in all learning. The focus is on: God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit
Planning and assisting in liturgy and other forms of worship
The sacraments
Service
Liturgical seasons
Lives of saints
Church as community
New Prayers:
Act of Contrition
Apostle's Creed
Science
Macmillan McGraw-Hill, Illinois Edition 2005
Students use concrete, hands-on experiences to understand science in the physical and natural world around them As they learn through observing, predicting, questions, and explaining, students discover the importance of science.
Students will
Identify characteristics of living things
Recognize relationships of living things and their environments, especially in Illinois
Identify and understand force and motion
Identify and investigate the solar system and space
Investigate how to care for the Earth and its resources
Identify properties of sound
Recognize properties of bones and muscles
Students will
Collect and chart data
Use appropriate tools, scientific equipment and materials safely
Social Studies
Communities, Illinois Edition – Scott Foresman
Illinois – Scott Foresman
Students study how people settle and live in communities. We learn about communities in the United States and around the world. We discuss how we share histories, governments, celebrations, language, and customs.
We study different maps, landforms, famous people, and ways to protect our environment.
Through learning about our government, we learn citizenship and how we make rules for ourselves.
We will also study the state of Illinois, the people, geography, the history, and the economics. We will focus on Chicago and it’s many landmarks and famous attractions.