Third Grade

Innovation’s third grade teachers are excited to welcome students back!

Teachers:
Green, Anna
Knott, Keith
Sabellico, Maggie
Wesselkamper, Camille
Braxton, Joyce
Gorecki, Kimberlee

Get conversations started at home this year by discussing these current learning topics.

Reading We will be doing lots of great reading this year!  We do lots of thinking while we read.  We summarize, make predictions, make connections, visualize, and ask and answer questions.  We will focus on a structured approach to meet the phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, and comprehension needs of your student this year.  What you can do at home: Ask your child to make predictions, connections, summarize, and what they are visualizing in their head as you read to them, or in a conversation after they have read independently.  Ask your child to point out some details and evidence in the text about what they read, and the main idea that all those details fall under.

Writing Students will be gathering many ideas for writing stories through great examples of books we read. Each book offers a new idea for writing.  We will be using our writing journal regularly. What you can do at home: As your child to write about a small moment, and stretch it out over 7-10 sentences.  Have them keep a journal of favorite events or travels they do.

Social Studies We will be learning about our government as we start the year, and will celebrate Constitution Day in September. Most of the year will be learning about ancient civilizations, how they adapted, and what inventions they made.  What you can do at home: Visit one of the many great monuments in Washington DC to see our government in action (Archives, Capitol, Mt Vernon).  Look at maps on pamphlets, GPS systems, and books to discuss them.  Have your child create a treasure map with a title, key, and scale.  Ask your child to make connections between ancient cultures or connections to our culture.

Science We will be learning about the scientific method through various science experiments.  We will learn to make a smart hypothesis, collect data, and interpret results of an experiment.What you can do at home: Help your child identify simple experiments at home.  Does a plant grow bigger if watered by milk or water? Does a baseball go farther when hit by a wood or metal bat? Which grows mold faster – moist bread or dry bread? Does exercise affect heart rate?

Math We will begin the year with fact fluency and patterns in math. What you can do at home: Visit the “3rd Grade Links” and practice some of the math activities.  For place value, we are learning up to the hundred thousands place (100,000).  Students should be able to write numbers in standard form, expanded form, and word form.  Provide them one of those expressions, and have your child complete the other ways to express it.  Students should be able to round numbers up to the thousands place this year.  Ask your child to help you count money and make change. See a graph anywhere?  Help your child interpret it!  And learn those addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts!

It’s going to be a great year in 3rd grade!