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Welcome to the 3rd Grade at GICS!
Be sure to check out our Monthly Highlights following the
Program and Curriculum Overviews.
Program Overview
Third Grade is a time
for children to continue to grow both academically and emotionally.
Students become more independent and can use knowledge gained in first and
second grade to explore and expand new and challenging material.
Teaching
methods, which vary depending on the activity and the students participating,
include whole group, small group, and one-on-one instruction; directed and open
discussions; the use of teacher-created and student-created materials, role
playing, art projects and other activities to demonstrate or deepen
comprehension; note taking and webbing; the incorporation of music and games;
and a variety of hands-on projects and activities.
Homework is regularly
assigned. Third graders receive comments of their work that roughly
approximate grades. In this way, we will move slowly toward grades and
helping students get used to the concept of grades before they actually receive
grades on their report cards. Typical field trips have included trips to
see plays at Maryland Hall, The National Zoo, and Native Lands in Jessup, MD.
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Curriculum Overview
Language Arts: Reading and Literature
Novels are used
throughout the year to teach a variety of skills with an emphasis on vocabulary
building and comprehension. We also use the Harcourt Brace basal series
Treasury of Literature. Whole language activities such as choral
reading, poetry, music, art, and role playing are used to enrich literature
selections. (Texts: Treasury of Literature, Harcourt Brace; novels
such as Charlotte's Web, Ramona The Pest, Anthology of Fairy
Tales, Anthology of Folk Tales, Sarah Plain and Tall, The
Courage of Sarah Noble, A Lion to Guard Us)
Language Arts: Writing
Writing is used
throughout the curriculum in the form of journal writing, book reports, current
events, reports, and cross-curricular activities. Writing Workshop is also
a part of the writing experience. The children use the writing process to
explore topics that matter to them. All writing focuses on improving
spelling, grammar, dictionary, comprehension and handwriting skills.
Language Arts: Spelling
A phonics-based
program is used to teach children the necessary tools for becoming a competent
speller. Students also develop lists of bonus words taken from their
literature and social studies readings. (Text: Spelling, Scott
Foresman)
Language Arts: Grammar
Grammar skills are
focused on during Writing Workshop mini-lessons through our literature and
grammar text. Skills include study of structure and types of sentences,
language usage, and mechanics. (Text: Language, Harcourt Brace)
Language Arts: Handwriting
D’Nealian handwriting is
reviewed and practiced throughout the year.
Mathematics
Math skills taught
include addition and subtraction using three- and four-digit numbers,
multiplication facts 1-10, division with a one-digit divisor, decimals,
fractions, time, money, geometry, and measurement. Numerous opportunities
are given to use graphing, estimation, mental math, calculators, and problem
solving skills. The use of manipulatives enhances the learning process.
(Text: Math Central, Houghton Mifflin)
Social Studies
Third-graders learn
about the land and people of the United States, and about how natural resources
affected the daily lives of Native Americans. Third graders also learn
about the settlement of the United States including pilgrims, western expansion,
and the formation of cities. Literature, cooperative learning, videos, and
life experiences are used to build knowledge. (Text, From Sea to Shining Sea,
Houghton Mifflin)
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Art
With a strong emphasis on
creativity, individuality and self-expression, the Third Grade art program helps
students learn more about color relationships, spatial relationships, positive
and negative space, composition, and light and shadow. Master artists and
current artists are introduced as part of lessons in media, technique or
concepts. Students work in a variety of media, including clay, fiber, paint,
pencil, and paper.
Computer
Third graders
continue to expand their knowledge of computer operations and software.
They write and illustrate stories, create brochures for class presentations,
work with two open programs simultaneously, and learn to save their work to both
floppy disks and network drives for later editing. Text and images are
copied and pasted between programs, and the Internet continues to be explored as
a source for information and graphics.
Library
Student use of the
Library catalog is reinforced in Third Grade as students search by author,
title, and subject. The students begin to use encyclopedias, locate
information using tables of contents and indices, and discuss folk tales, myths,
and award winning books. The Library program continues to promote an
appreciation for literature and a life-long love of reading.
Music
Students continue to
explore basic music elements such as pitch and tempo as well as more complex
rhythmic patterns and music notation. They can sing as a group or solo.
Most of the music is two-part singing with movement. Another focus is expanding
the four major instrument groups and exposure to different music genres through
a composer of the month and multicultural music. Cross-curriculum
approaches such as having the students take notes about important musicians are
integrated into music lessons in cooperation with the homeroom teachers.
Exposure to performance opportunities occurs in class and during the December
Holiday Program and through Assembly Programs.
Physical Education
The Third grade
students participate in activities that include use of locomotor skills,
movement exploration, body mechanics, and rhythmical routines. Teaching
methods vary depending on the activities of the period. The fundamental
skills of throwing, catching, dribbling, jumping and bouncing balls are
reintroduced and practiced. Playground games, sportsmanship, cooperation
and safety are emphasized. We continue team games (skills, strategy and
rules). Students participate in the Physical Fitness Assessment Program.
Students are introduced to specific, more detailed muscles.
Science
Third-graders are
introduced to the scientific method and are involved in a variety of hands-on
activities and experiments. Skills addressed are: thinking skills, forming
hypothesis, interpreting data, problem solving, observing patterns, and
identifying similarities and differences. Students use previous knowledge
and experience in developing inquiry-based questions and content learning goals.
They build upon these authentic questions using the appropriate steps of the
scientific method.
Students investigate the
earth sciences, sun, moon, as well as the human body, senses and nutrition.
Students classify plants and animals, study their cycles and habitats, and focus
on Bay studies. Field trips have included a visit to a Waste to Energy
Facility and the Chesapeake Bay Environmental Center. Science curriculum
often takes cues from the Third Grade’s social studies program including trees,
earth forms, and the water cycle. The third grade will participate in a
restoration project with the help of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. They
will grow oyster spat off of the pier and monitor the water quality in which
they are growing. At the end of the year the third grade will take the
spat to an existing oyster reef in the Magothy River.
Spanish
Third grade students
continue to learn, review, and expand areas previously presented. Students
are introduced to time on the hour, professions, sports, shops and stores,
health and body. They build a sight vocabulary and begin to write the words and
phrases that they have learned orally, read and write short “stories”, make
“libros pequeños” (small books), and create picture/poster projects on areas of
vocabulary.
Students also learn more
about the customs and culture of Mexico and Spain, make a book, and create a
Christmas bulletin board. They learn an appreciation of language, people,
and the cultural similarities and differences of Mexico, Spain and other
countries, including their own, through books, discussions, and visitors.
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3rd Grade Highlights
May & June 2008
Our busy month of April really has seemed to fly between Jane Goodall and the
Roots and Shoots Fair, Bay Week, and now this week’s standardized testing! May
is continuing in April’s footsteps! Here’s a peek at what is ahead for third
grade.
Sandwich Making: Don’t forget! We will be making sandwiches this Friday,
May 2 for the homeless. Third graders are bringing in bread or meat! Let’s beat
that record of ours of 226 sandwiches!
Bridges and Bay Week: Third grade had a down-right excellent Bay Week. We
learned so much on our boat ride out on the Magothy with the Chesapeake Bay
Foundation to release our oysters. We studied nautical maps and learned about
the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. We measured the bay’s oxygen and salinity levels
to find the exact spot to provide our baby oysters with their new homes. The
trip with Mrs. Guissenhainer to Sandy Point State Park to study, sketch, and
paint the bridge was also a fabulous and relaxing trip—we could not have asked
for better weather either day!
We ended our week of bridge research by putting our knowledge of arch,
suspension, cable-stayed, and beam bridges to the test by building one of our
own! Teams of three students each built a bridge using only the following items:
a two-foot span of cardboard, straws, straight pins, a ruler, scissor, and a lot
of creative cooperation! We tested the strength of our bridges by placing
weights on them to see which team could build the strongest bridge using what
they had learned about bridges. Be sure to ask a third grader to fill you in on
the 2008 Construction Report!
Vikings: We are wrapping up Vikings this week by completing our Viking
Scrapbooks. Students have done a nice job of writing in runes, researching, and
incorporating facts in their photo album captions. We are culminating our study
with Viking Day, this Friday, May 2. Third graders are invited to wear Viking
attire based on their research (and their creative reconstruction of items they
may have at home. Please don’t go shopping—use those “3 R’s” of Bay Week: reuse,
recycle, and reduce!). All Viking attire will be worn over their uniform, and
must be nonviolent—no weapons, despite the Viking’s reputation as raiders! We
will have a few special tidbits to taste as we explore some final Viking
activities. It’ll be a victorious way to wrap up both Vikings and our testing
week!
Social Studies: As we leave the Viking time period of 798 AD—1066 AD, we
will be off on our final journey in time to the 1500s. It is there that we will
learn a bit about Magellan, Pizarro, Cortes, and their exploration of South
America and the discovery of the Aztec, Mayan, and Incan empires. We will be
doing a variety of activities to compare and contrast all three civilizations to
each other, as well as some of the other civilizations we have explored. Any
artifacts or information you wish to share, we would love your expertise.
Language Arts: In reading, we have been reading a variety of stories
in our culture unit, collecting stories for our “Reading Passport.” In addition
to using context clues and the glossary to build vocabulary, we have also been
continuing our year-long focus of building comprehension and understanding
through “thinking about thinking.” We have been analyzing and color-coding
question types by thinking about the type of question it might be. Comprehension
questions come in three categories, and can be viewed much like a reverse
stoplight:
Right There Questions: Go for the green….These are the
questions that have answers “right there” in the reading.
Think and Search Questions: Be careful with these…You may
need to look in more than one place to find these answers!
Author and You Questions: Stop and think….Use what you
know to make connections!
Typically, the tricky ones tend to be those red and yellow questions; they are
the ones that continue to trip us up! But, as the class has gained awareness of
the types of questions, it has been interesting to hear students comments,
directing each other how to approach the questions.
Math: We have moved beyond fractions and decimals and are beginning to
multiply and divide greater numbers. We began by looking at multiplication (and
later division) patterns that rely on the concepts that if 6 x 6 = 36, then 6 x
60 = 360, and 6 x 600 = 3600. From there, we estimated products like 2,683 x 4
by paying attention to what number 2,683 rounds (= 3,000), then multiplying
3,000 x 4. This skill is vital at helping us realize whether or not our final
answer is realistic when we actually do multiply multi-digit numbers such as
2,683 by single-digit numbers like 4. Similarly, the same holds true when
estimating quotients in division. By the end of the unit, we plan to be
professionals at multiplying and dividing multi-digit numbers by one-digit
numbers. For long division, you can practice chanting the same mantra we do at
school:
D-M-S-C-B: Divide- Multiply-Subtract-Compare-Bring down
This musical chant will help to keep all of the long division steps in order!
For the students who are still shaky on their basic multiplication and division
facts, this transition to greater numbers has been a rough adjustment. The best
way to battle this is to have your child practice those basic Mad Minute
multiplication and division facts! Locking in those facts we have been
practicing all year will be the best route to simplifying life and leading to
mathematical success!
We will round out the year by taking a peek at measurement and probability.
Just as when we looked into measuring length, we will be investigating both the
customary and metric units—but this time, for capacity, weight, and temperature.
We will be dabbling in some basic conversions (like how many cups in a pint) and
also what would be the most reasonable unit to use to fill a bathtub or to find
the weight of a suitcase. We have already been constructing mental benchmarks to
serve as frames of reference. For example, a piece of bread is equivalent to an
ounce, whereas a cake is more like a pound. You can help build this skill at
home by encouraging your child to investigate different product labels in your
kitchen to see how many liters, pounds, grams, etc. each item is.
Specials Highlights
May & June 2008
Art
Third Grade Art students have experimented with a variety of watercolor
techniques to create texture and realism in their paintings. During Bay Week,
the class had the opportunity to use their new knowledge of watercolors “en
plein air” at Sandy Point State Park. They combined their study of bridge
construction with watercolors to create unique art of the Bay Bridge. May and
June will be filled with additional watercolor studies and experimental art
techniques.
Due date for submissions to the Art Show is May 1st! Don’t
miss out on this opportunity to show us your talent!
Computer
To finish the year, the students will be working their way through Where in the
USA is Carmen Sandiego? They will be using a variety of reference tools and
their deductive reasoning skills in their pursuit of Carmen while learning about
the United States at the same time.
Library
 In
May, we will continue to practice using encyclopedias to find information. Using
print and CD-ROM sources, students will look up topics such as individual U.S.
states and topics related to those states. Students will use references in their
encyclopedia articles to extend their research into other topics. Later in the
month and into June, students will practice locating nonfiction materials
through the Dewey Decimal System’s ten’s places.
Music
 Third
Grade will be adding two notes to our recorder toolbox: low F# and high E. We
will be spending less time “perfecting” in class and more time working on sight
reading. We will be playing some games and doing some speed drills to increase
note recognition.
PE
 The
Student-Faculty Basketball game was a huge success and the 3rd graders are now
enjoying the lacrosse unit. We will continue to work outside with an emphasis on
eye-hand coordination and agility. The class will participate in various
“playground activities” such as SPUD, 4-square, hopscotch, kickball,
tee-ball/soft ball, and a jungle gym obstacle course.
Field Day will be held on Wed, June 4. Parent volunteers are needed!
PE Uniform reminder: navy dress shorts are not PE shorts. Please wear the navy
gym shorts with GICS logo.
Science
 We
have just started a unit on energy. The students will investigate the many forms
of energy and how they affect the planet. We will then study motion, Newton’s
Laws, and the physical properties of matter.
Spanish
 In May we
are finishing our “tengo”, “I am hungry, I am thirsty…” vocabulary. We will
begin a unit on “la ropa”, “the clothes”. We will do lots of fun activities and
learn a song to reinforce our vocabulary. We will also learn a song “Muevete”,
“Move Your Body”. We continue to review past vocabulary, practice reading,
spelling, pronunciation and comprehension. The students will be participating in
a Cinco de Mayo celebration to become aware of an important event in Mexican
history.
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