The Third Grade Team is excited to have your child here with us this year. We have dedicated ourselves to making this a successful and rewarding year for everyone involved. Below we will outline the major topics that your child will study throughout the year. Each quarter you will receive a copy of the scope and sequence, which details the objectives (skills that your child will learn or needs to master) for that quarter. Feel free to contact us via our email addresses at the bottom or by phone at the school.
Language Arts
Reading
• Reading Habits
• Read independently daily for at least 20 minutes
• Read a variety of genres including poetry, nonfiction, legends, novels, folklore, science fiction, plays, and skits
• Vocabulary and Word Work
• Increase vocabulary through reading, listening and discussing texts
• Figure out unfamiliar words by using what you know about vowel sounds, consonant sounds, homophones, prefixes, suffixes, compound words, and plurals
• Use context clues to figure out meanings of words
• Use the dictionary to check meanings
• Use the glossary to check meanings
• Comprehension and Connections
• Explain your choice of reading material for fiction and nonfiction
• Preview fiction and nonfiction texts and make predictions about what you think you will learn from reading
• Use CROPQV (Connections, Reactions, Opinions, Predictions, Questions, and Visualizations) while reading to show understanding
• Ask open ended questions after reading
• Use fix-up strategies (reread, read ahead, slow down, speed up, paraphrase, question) when what you're reading doesn't make sense
• Understand story elements: conflict, resolution, author's purpose, main idea and supporting details, sequence, cause and effect, lesson or message
• Point of View
• Drawing conclusions and making inferences
• Recognize advertising techniques
• Research a topic by developing guiding questions and exploring a variety of reference materials
• Reflect on new information
• Recognize the differences among genres
Writing
• Writing Variety
• Write a variety of different types of texts including: poetry, instructions, directions, notes, friendly letters, learning logs, personal narratives, and short reports
• Discuss information
• Explain own learning
• Focus
• Explain to whom your writing, for what purpose and why you decided to use the selected form of writing
• Stick to the topic when writing
• Reread what you have written and revise making it clearer
• Follow prewriting plans
• Include main ideas
• Continue a conversation with someone through either writing or speaking
• Organization
• Present information in an order that makes sense
• Come up with own ideas for topics
• Reread own writing and revise by changing the order of events or ideas
• Compose two or more paragraphs with appropriate, logical sequence
• Plan before writing
• Support and Elaboration
• Reread own writing and make it better by adding descriptive words and phrases
• Write two or more paragraphs that have topic sentences and supporting details
• Combine short, related sentences for elaboration
• Write two or more paragraphs with enough details to help the reader clearly understand the topic
• Style
• Reread own writing and make it better by using better words, combining short, related sentences for sentence fluency, and using precise vocabulary
• Conventions
• Use sound patterns to spell words
• Use capital letters for names of places, holidays, special events, and book titles
• Use periods after initials and abbreviations
• Use commas in dates, between city and state, and in greetings
• Use handwriting that others can easily read
• Speak and write in complete sentences
• Check spelling to see if it looks right and remember that some letters are silent
• Use apostrophes in contractions
• Reread own writing to check spelling using classroom resources, to look for mistakes in capitalization and punctuation, and to see that the verb matches the subject
• Use computers or other keyboarding tools to write
Mathematics
Wake County schools are continuing to use Math Trailblazers this year. For more information you can visit the Math Trailblazers website at www.mathtrailblazers.com .
• Goal 1: Number and Operations
*Fluency with Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication and Division
*Fractional Parts and Relationships
*Place Value
*Problem Solving Strategies
*Properties for operations
• Goal 2: Measurement
*Elapsed Time
*Mass
*Length
*Capacity
*Temperature
*Equivalent measures in systems
• Goal 3: Geometry
*Coordinate points
*Paths between points on a plane
*Two and Three Dimensional Vocabulary
• Goal 4: Data Analysis and Probability
*Collect, organize, analyze, and display data
*Permutations and combinations
*Probability
• Goal 5: Algebra
*Describe and extend numeric and geometric patterns
*Use symbols to represent unknowns in a number sentence
*Extend and find missing terms of repeating and growing patterns
*Find the value of an unknown in a number sentence
Science
Our science goals are taught collaboratively with our science teacher Ms. Hall.
Goal 1: The learner will conduct investigations and build an understanding of plant growth and adaptations. (Taught quarter 4)
Goal 2: The learner will conduct investigations to build
understanding of soil properties. (Taught quarter 3)
Goal 3: The learner will make observations and use appropriate technology to build an understanding of the earth/moon/sun system. (Taught quarter 2)
Goal 4: The learner will conduct investigations and use appropriate technology to build an understanding of the form and function of the skeletal and muscle systems of the human body. (Taught quarter 1)
Social Studies
The learner will characterize qualities of good citizenship by identifying people that made a difference in the community and other social environments.
The learner will explain geographic concepts and the relationship between people and geography in real life situations.
The learner will analyze the multiple roles that individuals perform in families, workplaces, and communities.
The learner will examine how individuals can initiate change in families, neighborhoods and communities.
The learner will apply basic economic principles to the study of communities.
The learner will recognize how technology is used at home, school, and in the community.
The learner will analyze the role of real and fictional heroes in shaping the culture of communities.
Standards Based Grading
Wake County Elementary Schools will continue to grade using the standards based grading program. What this means for parents is that the papers that are being sent home will have a variety of marks on them. Anything that comes home with a 1, 2, 3, or 4 was an assessment done in class. Anything that comes home with a “P” or a “P” with a circle around it means that it was either homework or classwork that was just practice. Only on the report card will you see a mark of 3*, which means that your child made attempts at level 4 opportunities, but is not quite at a level 4 yet. If you have any questions regarding this system please feel free to contact your child's teacher.
Things That You Can Do At Home To
Help Make This School Year a Success
Check your child's planner daily.
Make sure that your child reads every night for at least 15 minutes.
Check Monday folders every Monday for weekly news and information.
Talk to your child about what they are doing at school.
Conference at least two times during the school year with your child's teacher.
Attend school related meetings and functions for important information and assistance for your child.
Make sure that your child is prepared with all necessary materials for classes.
Be aware of what is going on with your child.
Ms. Jennifer Joyner jjoyner1@wcpss.net
Ms. Danielle McCaslin dmccaslin@wcpss.net
Mrs. Leigh Ann Freeman lfreeman2@wcpss.net