Third Grade Curriculum Guide and Information

Third Grade Curriculum Goals

Reading

As students progress through school, the rigor of the work associated with reading instruction is enhanced every year. This is to prepare them for the challenges of reading at the college level and also later in their careers. Students are expected to show greater comprehension with each grade promotion and be able to effectively read a variety of written material. The two main reading areas are literature and informational text.

Literature

When readings novels and other types of literature, students will be expected to recognize the themes of the stories and explain how these themes are expressed. They must be able to describe characters in detail, focusing on elements such as motivation, traits and feelings. Furthermore, students will have to identify the roles that the character's actions and decisions play in how the plot develops.

Informational Text

With informational texts, students will be required to determine the main idea and use details to support their answer. In addition, students will have to be able to pinpoint the author's point of view and evaluate it in relation to their personal point of view. Students will learn how to look at several texts to compare how information is presented, and also how to use illustrations to gain a better understanding of the reading material.

Math

In third grade math, students learn basic skills, which include multiplication and division. Mastery over the fundamentals taught in the third grade prepares students for the advanced mathematical areas they will encounter later, such as algebra and statistics.

Fractions

Students will need to appropriately place and identify fractions on a number line. They will need to convert whole numbers into fractions and understand that certain fractions are the same as whole numbers (5/1 = 5 and 4/4 = 1). Furthermore, third grade students will be required to know how to compare two fractions with the same denominator or numerator and determine which fraction is larger.

Measurement & Data

Although telling time was introduced in second grade, third graders learn to tell and write time with more accuracy and solve word problems dealing with time. Also, students learn about liquid volumes and mass through measurement and estimation. Standard units of measurement, such as liters, grams and kilograms, will be used in solving various problems.