Course Overview

Third Grade Overview

MATH

     Our math program is centered around Saxon.  This program includes basic number facts and computation skills.  Thorough coverage is also given to place value including reading and writing large whole numbers through the millions, money, fractions, patterns, lists, tables, and charts, geometry, congruency, and symmetry.  Students also understand that numbers can be represented by points on a number line.  Measurement and measurement concepts are also extensively covered, including length, area, perimeter, time, and temperature.  Special focus is put on problem-solving strategies and how they are connected to life experiences both in and outside of school. Students will be able to communicate about math using informal language and use logical reasoning to make sense of the world around them.

READING

     Reading is practiced every day in third grade.  Each week, we begin a different story in our new Scholastic Reading Books.  Throughout the week, the students read the story and take it home so they will have the opportunity to share the story with their parents.  Various skills and phonics activities are completed by the end of the week.  Grades are taken on vocabulary, comprehension, and various reading skills.  Along with the textbook, we practice TAKS stories.  We use the PLORE method to attack the TAKS passages. The following objectives are met within the scope of our reading program:  identifying supporting ideas, summarization, recognizing outcomes, understanding feelings and emotions, fact and opinion, and word meaning using context clues.

ENGLISH

     Students continually practice writing and English usage. Much emphasis is placed on several modes of writing, which include descriptive, narrative, compare and contrast, and persuasive.  The students authentic writings test their skills in sentence structure,  punctuation, capitalization, and appropriate grammatical usage. Skills are evaluated as  they are completed.

SOCIAL STUDIES

     Third-grade curriculum builds on the topic of "Community Life" to make the child aware of his proximity, relationship, and responsibility to his town, county, state, country, nation, hemisphere, and planet where he or she exists.  Emphasis on local government, customs, and geography expand his/her knowledge of our rich heritage.  The student is made aware of his responsibility to make the environment a better place for him/herself and others.  Materials such as maps, library books, time lines, globes, and visuals are incorporated for better learning.  

SCIENCE

      Third-grade's primary goal in science is to make the student aware of his place in the ecosystem and to teach skills that will be used to help create a safer and cleaner environment for the community.  Experimentation using properties of matter, heat and light, forces and motion help the student to understand the way energy works.  Life science deals with the different cycles of life including plant, animal, and water.  Earth science looks at our local community's soil to land formations.  These skills will enable the student to make wise and considerate choices when interacting with the environment.

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Northside Elementary School
Waxahachie Independent School District