3rd Grade Curriculum

LANGUAGE ARTS/READING
PHONICS

• Use relationships between letters and sounds to decode written English
• Decode multisyllabic words in context using common spelling patterns
• Use common syllabication patterns to decode words
• Identify and read contractions and affixes
• Recognize and use vowel patterns, complex word families, root words

• Comprehend a variety of texts/make and confirm predictions
• Ask questions about text and locate answers
• Establish purpose for reading
• Pre-reading strategies such as mental pictures and experiences
• Read grade level text with fluency and comprehension for extended time

• Understand new vocabulary when reading
• Use context clues
• Identify antonyms, synonyms, homographs and homophones
• Alphabetize series of words to the third letter
• Use dictionary and glossary

• Analyze, make inferences and draw conclusions about theme and genre
• Paraphrase details of fables, legends, myths or stories
• Compare and contrast settings in myths and folktales
• Make connections with characters and events in stories
• Identify main problem, conflict, resolution, cause and effect
• Differences in main and minor characters
• Recognize fairy tales, fiction, nonfiction, myths, fables, fantasy, biography, autobiography
• Understand structure and elements of poetry
• Understand structure and elements of drama
• Sequence and summarize the plot’s main events
• Describe interactions between characters
• Identify first or third person speaker
• Identify main idea and supporting details
• Understand elements of nonfiction
• Use graphic organizers
• Understand how authors use imagery in text
• Distinguish between fact or fiction
• Use text features/index/table of contents/preface/appendix
• Analyze and make conclusions to persuasive text
• Understand how to gather information and follow multi-step directions
• Analyze how words, images, graphics and sounds work together in various forms

• Use elements of the writing process
• Publish written work for specific audience
• Peer tutoring/editing
• Paragraph writing
• Write imaginative stories
• Write poems/rhyme, meter, patterns of verse
• Similes and alliteration
• Write personal narratives
• Write expository text
• Compositions that include simple facts/details/topic sentence/concluding statement
• Write letters with appropriate conventions

• Present/Past/Future tense verbs
• Singular,plural, common and proper nouns
• Adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, possessive pronouns, conjunctions
• Transition words/complete subject and predicate in sentences
• Simple and compound sentences
• Write legibly with appropriate capitalization and punctuation
• Follow research plan to collect information from multiple sources of information , both oral and written
• Express ideas in a logical manner

MATH
Numbers and Operations

• Read, write and describe the value of whole numbers through 999,999
• Compare and order whole numbers through 9,999
• Determine the value of a collection of coins and bills
• Model addition and subtraction using words and numbers
• Solve addition and subtraction problems through 999
• Round two-digit numbers to the nearest ten and three digit numbers to the nearest hundred
• Estimate sums and differences using rounding
• Create and compare models of fractions
• Use fraction names and symbols to describe fractional parts of whole objects
• Multiplication facts through 12 x 12
• Solve 2 digit by 1 digit multiplication and 3 digit by 1 digit multiplication
• Identify even and odd numbers

• Identify whole numbers and geometric patterns to make predictions and solve problems
• Identify patterns in multiplication and division fact families
• Organize and order data in labeled tables

• Identify, classify, compare and describe 2 and 3 dimensional figures by their attributes
• Identify similar and congruent shapes
• Create shapes with lines of symmetry
• Identify and describe the relative size of angles with right angles as a reference
• Use coordinate system to specify locations

Measurement

• Use linear measurement tools to estimate and measure lengths using standard units (English and Metric)
• Calculate the area and the perimeter of regular shapes
• Measure capacity, weight, and temperature
• Tell time to the nearest minute and measured elapsed time using a clock and/or a calendar

• Collect, organize, record, and display data in pictographs and bar graphs
• Use data to describe events as more likely, less likely, or equally likely
• Translate information from one data representation to another, i.e. graph to table

• Solve word problems
• Select an appropriate problem-solving plan or strategy
• Use tools such as real objects and manipulatives to solve problems

SCIENCE
Physical Science

• Plan and conduct an investigation to provide evidence of the effects of balanced and unbalanced forces on the motion of an object
• Make observations and/or measurements of an object’s motion
• Determine cause and effect relationships of electric or magnetic interactions

• Identify life cycle in plants and animals
• Compare how animals form groups to survive
• Identify inherited, learned, and environmental traits
• Identify how environment changes plants and animal’s lives

• Describe typical weather conditions in particular season
• Explain solutions that reduce the impact of a weather-related hazard

• Explain the significance of various ethnic and cultural celebrations local, state, national, world
• Identify/compare/analyze heroic deeds of state, national, military heroes and first responders
• Identify writers and artist and their works

• Describe how individuals, events, and ideas have changed communities
• Identify individuals who have helped shape communities
• Describe how individuals have helped existing communities of to create new ones
• Identify reasons people have formed communities
• Identify ways in which the people’s needs are met in communities
• Use vocabulary related to chronology, including past, present and future
• Create and interpret timelines
• Apply terms years, decade, and century to describe historical time

• Use cardinal and immediate directions to locate places on maps and globes
• Identify and compare how people in different communities adapt or modify the physical environment in which they live
• Describe effects of physical processed in changing the physical landscapes
• Use scale to determine distance between places on maps and globes
• Create and interpret maps of places and regions

• Describe structure of local, state, national government
• Identify local, state, national government officials and how they are chosen
• Identify local, state, national government services provided for the people
• Explain how local, state, national services are financed
• Identify purpose of Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, United States Constitution

• Identify ways of earning, spending, saving and donating money
• Create a simple budget that allocates money for spending, saving and donating
• Define and identify examples of scarcity
• Describe and explain production, distribution and consumption
• Explain the concept of a free market/enterprise system
• Give examples of simple business
• Explain supply and demand/profits and losses
• Explain how government regulates taxes
• Identify individual entrepreneurs in the community

• Identify scientists and inventors who have discovered scientific breakthroughs or invented new technology
• Identify ways modern technology is used by the Catholic Church

• Identify and explain good characteristics of good citizenship and Catholic teachings
• Identify and explain historical/contemporary figures who exemplify good citizenship
• Give examples of community changes that result from group decisions

• Identify and give examples of how people and places are connected around the globe
• Through trade, communication, technology, politics, travel and economics
• Social Study Skills/Processes
• Research information about the world through variety of sources
• Sequence and categorize information
• Interpret oral, visual and print material
• Use various parts of a source to located information
• Interpret and create visuals
• Use appropriate mathematical skills to interpret information
• Express ideas orally based on knowledge and experience
• Use technology to create written and visual materials to express ideas
• Use standard grammar, spelling, sentence structure and punctuation
• Use the problem-solving and decision making process