WM 3rd Grade Curriculum Update
April 2018
Reading and Writing
Reading
Third Graders will spend part of April doing some test prep and gearing up for the Forward Exam. We will be infusing in a short unit of poetry for reading. Students will be learning how to read poems and understand what they notice. They will pay attention to mood, structure, vocabulary and author’s choice and craft.
Writing
Third graders will spend April finishing up their Informational Texts and then moving on to a short poetry writing unit to coincide with reading. Students will experiment crafting their own poems with what they have learned.
Math
Unit 6: Geometry
Investigating polygons
Quadrilaterals
Perimeter & Area
Shapes and Fractions
In this unit, your child will describe and classify two-dimensional shapes, especially quadrilaterals. He or she will calculate area and perimeter. Another key skill will include representing fractions as parts of a whole shape.
Science
3rd Graders rotate through these FOSS Science kits throughout the year.
Energy and Matter: Students learn about the transfer of energy from one form to another.
Sound: Students learn how sound is generated, how it is made louder and softer, higher and lower.
Water: Students learn the properties, changes, and interactions of water.
Social Studies
We are learning about the different branches and levels of government, basic rights of citizens and the voting process.
LMC - Library
We’ll experiment with different methods of organizing materials and ideas, and we’ll examine how these ideas apply to the organization of library books.
Music
Mrs. Spahn’s classes will be working on: Continuing to learn our notes of the treble staff, including concepts like time signature and measures. We will also begin studying Pictures at an Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky.
Ms. Soltis’ classes will be working on: Exploring major (happy sounding) vs. minor (spooky/mysterious sounding) through performance, describing, and composing
Technology
Students will use spreadsheet tools or graphing programs to represent and analyze data. Students will continue to strengthen their typing speed and words per minute.
Art
PE
Our Jump Rope for Heart Event will be April 5th & 6th during your child’s PE class. We are fundraising and jumping to bring awareness to and support the American Heart Association. We will also be doing Spring Fitness testing, our, Track & Field Unit, and trying to get outside as much as possible.