This is a very exciting and challenging year for your child. The third graders are now solidifying their primary years to make a good transition into intermediate grades next year. It is a year of growth and challenge and as their teacher. I look forward to being an important part of your child’s learning along with you. Thank you in advance for all of your support in emphasizing the importance of learning and always doing your best.
Philosophy:
Each child entering our classroom is a unique and special individual with their own talents and qualities. All students have a right to a good learning environment with high expectations for each child. My job as their third grade teacher is to ensure that class is conducted in an atmosphere of mutual respect. When one person is speaking, others are quiet and listening. We laugh with and not at others. We expect the students to do their best at following directions, being prepared, trying hard in all academic areas, and respecting school property and the property of others.
Classroom Environment
We are proactive in our teaching so behavior issues tend not to be a problem. Stealing a line from E. B. White, “If I make the work interesting the discipline usually takes care of itself.” We use lots of positive encouragement and interactions with your children. The beginning of the year is about rewarding classroom management. We are obtaining points if students make good transitions and can take care of their materials and each other in positive ways. Individually, each child, with the approval of the teacher, creates a goal (behavior or academic) on Friday to focus on for the following week. It will be communicated on the half sheet of paper going home in students’ Friday Folders. Later in the year, students will be rewarded based on these personal goals they make.
Academic Subjects:
MAP testing The students will also taking the national MAP test starting in mid September. There will be four tests (math, reading, language and science) over a period of three weeks. It will solidify what areas your child needs to work on as well as be challenged. We will be meeting with each student discussing their results and allowing for them to create academic goals throughout the year based on these results and on-going progress through the year. We will discuss these results and goals at our conference.
Religion
Christian values are integrated throughout the day.
Word of Life and Second Step are the two texts and programs used in third grade focusing on:
• The Church is One – The Holy Spirit guides us, Sacraments of Christian Initiation, Love one another
• The Church is Holy – Forgiveness and healing, Reconciliation, Jesus teaches how to love
• The Church is Catholic – The Mass, Serving others, Openness
• The Church is Apostolic – Continues the mission of the Apostles, Committed
through Sacraments, Commitments
• The Church Has a Mission to the World – Sign of the Kingdom of God, Called to
Serve, Witness for Justice and Peace, World Peace
• A Variety of Prayer Experiences – meditation, scriptural reflections.
• Liturgical year
• Conflict and Resolution, Socialization Skills
• Anti-Bullying Program
• Scripture Study
• Community Services
Religion is also integrated throughout our day, with morning prayers, scripture
readings, intentions, meal blessings, closing prayers, as well as it is integrated within other subject areas. An example of this is in handwriting, when we write scripture verses in our best cursive penmanship or in science when we discuss how God created the world.
Prayers for third graders to memorize this year:
- The Apostle’s Creed
- Come Holy Spirit
Spelling
The Zaner-Bloser program is used along with words that will be integrated
throughout the curriculum. The list of spelling words will be obtained from the third grade high frequency list and vocabulary from different subject areas. Students will be learning in-depth about the phonics of the selected spelling list.
Handwriting
The Slingerland Method is used. Cursive is taught/reviewed at the beginning of the year and various assignments will be expected to written in cursive once all letters, capitals and lower case letters are taught.
Literature
Third graders have a new Reading curriculum: Benchmark Advance. It has a Reader’s and Writer’s Workshop element to the program. We will be diving into reading lots of Fiction and Non-Fiction literature using small books. To build fluency, students will be able to perform through “Reader’s Theater.”
In October, third graders will be reading a fictional book called: Molly’s Pilgrim. From there, we will be using non-fiction texts to read about immigration through Ellis Island. We will be having an “Immigration Day” in which your children will dress up like an assigned immigrant and pass through “Ellis Island.” We need parent volunteers for this!!!
Reading and writing will also be integrated into the Science and Social Studies as well for content vocabulary and research.
Independent Reading/Book Reports
Students are to read at least 20 minutes three to four times a week. At the end of each month, students will present a book report. There will be various assignments as we go, which I will keep you informed in the newsletters.
Grammar
Students will also learn in depth about nouns, verbs, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, prefixes, suffixes, homonyms, homographs and figures of speech. We will be integrating our grammar in writing as well. D.O.L. (Daily Oral Language) is used one to two times a week in the morning to focus in grammar.
Writing
The Six Traits of Writing, the Four Square pre-writing method, and multiple
organizers will be modeled and used throughout the year. The focus will be mainly on narrative (creative writing) and expository (factual paragraphs and essays) writing. Students will also learn about persuading, comparing and contrasting, poetry, outlines and research papers. Final drafts will be typed into Word or on a Power Point presentation. As writing assignments are due, I will let you know.
Math:
Third grade will be using the Go Math! textbook from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. We will also pull material from many other sources. This year, special emphasis will be placed on multiplication and division and mastering these basic facts. It is essential that students know their addition and subtraction facts with accuracy and speed. Please assist them with this at home. This will help as we continue to build our knowledge base in math. When we begin our sections on multiplication and division, they will also be asked to memorize their facts up to the 12’s. They will be tested periodically for mastery of these facts. The following concepts will be covered this year:
• Addition and subtraction fluency
• Place value
• Rounding
• Multiplication and division facts through 12
• Problem solving
• Fractions
• Measurement
• Time
• Graphing
• Area and Perimeter
Instruction on the above concepts will be given Monday through Thursday, with homework each of these nights. Sometimes one of the night’s math homework will be to spend 15 minutes practicing math on IXL. Friday will be either “Fact Friday” or another type of game day, reinforcing the concepts taught that week. Your students will explore many different approaches to understanding concepts and solving problems. They will be asked not only to find answers, but to model the problem and explain how they got their answer. Catholic Identity and the Student Learning Expectations are an integral part of how we approach math. Ask your children how learning math can make help them to serve God and go forth to make a lasting difference in the world.
Science
The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) are what drives our curriculum. The following units will be covered throughout this year:
• Fossils
• Structures, Process and Interactions of Organisms
• Heredity Traits
• Force & Motion
• Magnetism
• Weather
Social Studies
At the beginning of the year, students are will be learning about map skills. They will also be learning about the regions of North America. There will be an “Ellis Island” experience in November which will lead family studies and presentations this fall and winter. This spring we will study about Native Americans.
Field trips:
October 25th -Whatcom Farm Circle -Lynden Fairgrounds
Immigration Day – November
Bellingham Courthouse -December
Grading Policy:
In third grade, students are graded using standards base assessment. They are not assigned a letter grade but are given a number that corresponds to an academic quality. The goal is for every student to meet standard. Standard numbers are not the equivalent of a letter grade. Listed below are the standard number and a description. Students learning expectations (SLE’s) refer to behavior, work habits and attitude. They will be listed on the front of the report card.
4- Exceeding Expectation- The student consistently and independently exceeds
expectation.
3 – Meeting Expectation – The student frequently meets expectations with minimal assistance.
2.5- Beginning to Meet Expectations – The student is beginning to meet expectations with minimal assistance.
2-Working toward Expectation – The student occasionally meets expectation and
requires moderate assistance and redirection.
1-Below Expectation – The student rarely meets expectation and requires considerable assistance and redirection.
We are anticipating a great year in Third Grade. Thank you for your Commitment to our Catholic Community.
Blessings,
Beverly Williams
bwilliams@assumption.school