Overview & Highlights

Curriculum Highlights

Religion:

Students begin with “Into God’s Word” and go as far as we can through the major bible stories. We do at times skip around to match the current church season and are using the One In Christ, Concordia Publishing House Series.

Memory:

Students learn the books of the Bible (Old and New Testament), focus on Martin Luther’s Morning and Evening Prayers, and will memorize the 10 Commandments and their meanings, along with selected weekly Bible verses.

Handwriting:

Students begin the year reviewing manuscript writing and quickly move into cursive. By the beginning of December, students will be required to do all assignments (except for Spelling and Math) in cursive.

Math:

After a quick review, students begin the year with numeration, place value, addition and subtraction with regrouping with our Envision Math that aligns with Common Core State Standards. Next, several chapters are spent learning multiplication and division concepts. Students also explore congruence, symmetry, fractions, decimals and money, time and temperature, data, graphs, and probability.

Science:

HMH Science Dimensions (2018) Units include, Engineering and Technology (which includes our Lego Project and Robotics for STEAM), Forces in Physical Science, Motion, Life Cycles and Inherited Traits, Organisms and Their Environment, Fossils and Weather and Patters. These are rotated depending on classes along with Lifecycles and hatching chicks in our Embryology program during our Life Science Unit in the spring.

Spelling:

The standard 3rd Grade curriculum is followed out of the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Journey’s Reading which aligns with Common Core State Standards using challenge words that are followed in conjunction with our weekly reading series. Students write spelling words in sentences, pretests, proofreading and culminating with tests on Fridays along with other activities.

Reading:

The Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 3rd Grade Journey’s basal reading books are used throughout the year. Along with Common Core State Standards, we also incorporate several novel studies including but not limited to: Freckle Juice, Mr. Popper’s Penguins, Frindle, Granny Torrelli Makes Soup, Charlotte’s Web, and Where the Mountain Meets the Moon.

Accelerated Reader: Accelerated Reader (A.R.) is designed to build a student’s comprehension of stories and increase their ability. Accelerated Reader books are worth a certain amount of points; students earn points once they have completed and passed a quiz on a book. At the beginning of each trimester, every student takes a Star Reading Test which determines their reading level and a goal is established. The A.R. program is part of our 30 minute time slot for silent reading each day. 20% of their reading grade is based on reaching their individual A.R. goal.

Language Arts:

The focus of Grammar is on Daily Oral Language, practicing sentence structure using subjects, predicates, nouns, verbs, adjectives etc., in addition to daily journal fantasy and reality writings. We also use the Grammar book by Sadlier “Vocabulary Workshop - Tools for Comprehension”. This helps students become better proofreaders and writers along with practicing dictionary work, and applying shades of meaning, word association, words in context, learning words with Latin roots, and using Synonyms and Antonyms. Students also daily practice their handwriting in both manuscript and cursive, so they are able to print and sign their name legibly and read historical documents.

Social Studies:

The Harcourt Social Studies book “Our Communities” is used and aligns with Common Core State Standards. The units focus on communities around us; communities and geography; communities over time; citizens and government; people in communities and around the world; and working in communities. We also participate in Junior Achievement and have a representative interact with students from Itasca Bank & Trust. Students get a better understanding of their surrounding community and the world around us.

Field Trips:

We enhance classroom learning with field trips several times a year. In the past, classes have visited plays such as Charlotte’s Web, Slim GoodBody’s Bodyology, traveled to the Morton Arboretum, walk to the Itasca Nature Center, the Itasca Bank & Trust, traveled to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and each year we make an all-school trip to Brookfield Zoo in May.

Physical Education:

Our Physical Education program covers all of the major sports while concentrating on gross motor skills, beginning work on fine motor skills, good sportsmanship, and team-building. 3rd graders change into a Gym uniform of a grey t-shirt, and black or navy basketball type shorts. Students must wear socks and non-marking Gym shoes that tie. No slip-on Gym shoes.

Students have daily Special classes throughout the week with Art, Choir, Computers, Gym, Music, Spanish, and STEAM. Students each have a laptop in our classroom and are used almost daily.