3rd Grade Specials
NFS Curriculum Update :: May & June, 2015
ART
Third grade artists will continue their study of Asian arts into may. Students will be finishing up their koinobori just in time to celebrate Japan's Children's Day. Will will move on to study traditional temples and architecture as well as the inspiring sculptures that guard them. Students will revisit traditional hand building techniques in clay to create their own "guardian" and will use a menagerie of materials to build their own temples. Later in the month we will travel to the Philadelphia Museum of Art to visit their Asian Art wing and students will see many of the things they have studied first hand. It's going to be an amazing month in the art room!!
LIBRARY
Third Grade will finish fractured fairy tales, reading Bigfoot Cinderrrrrella. They will have several digital citizenship lessons with Sarah Matthews and end the school year with either library concentration or Dewey Decimal bingo.
MUSIC
I have had such a wonderful time working with this third grade class. We will be ending the year with a recorder unit. Thank you for sharing your child with me this year!
P.E.
We will spend much of this month preparing for Field Day. The students will review and practice many of the races and games that will be played on the big day. Following Field Day, the class will participate in outdoor sports involving baseball/softball/kickball type activities as well as large group games that can be played on the fields. At the end of the school year the students will have the opportunity to choose a few of their favorite games and activities that were played during the year and repeat these activities one final time before the end of school.
SCIENCE
Third graders have moved from magnetism to electricity. Students will do their best to make a bulb light with a single wire, a cell, and a bulb. This challenge always seems like it will be super easy for the kids, but ends up being much harder due to their preconceived ideas about how electricity works. It is always an “ah-ha” moment for them. Then, with their new found knowledge, they try to light a bulb with two wires and a battery. Students receive bulb holders and cell/battery holders and proceed to explore circuits. They have open ended exploration time and put together more cells and more bulbs to make bigger and more complex circuits. They continue their explorations by looking at a dissected extension cord to see that it actually has two sections so that electricity can travel up and back. They find that energy in a battery travels from negative to positive, and they take apart an incandescent light bulb to see how it works. Then they explore a small motor, dissect it, illustrate it and put it back together to make it work one more time. Finally they explore conductors and insulators, find out the difference and test several different objects to see if they conduct electricity or not. Finally we conclude the unit learning about electrical hazards and how to avoid them. It should be an illuminating experience!
SPANISH
Third Grade will end the year with a unit on expressing what they like to do. They will learn the Spanish verbs for common activities and work with “Me gusta” (I like) and “No me gusta” (I don’t like) to discuss their preferences. They will also lean to ask and answer the question ¿Qué te gusta hacer? (What do you like to do?) Time permitting, we will also squeeze in a mini-unit that introduces the geography of the Spanish speaking world via the map of that region. Students will begin to learn the names of the countries and their capitals. As always we will continue to practice responding to and asking basic conversational questions in Spanish.