Helping Your Child with Reading

Setting the Atmosphere

• Help you child find a quiet, comfortable place to read.
• Have your child see you as a reading model by reading often.
• Read aloud to your child.
• Discuss the stories that you read together.
• Stop and talk about parts of the story that may surprise you, remind you of something that has happened to you, or reminds you of another book.
• Keep reading time enjoyable and relaxed.

When Your Child Comes to an Unfamiliar Word…

• Give your child “wait time” and see what he/she attempts to do to help him/herself before you intervene.
• Ask, “What do you think that word could be?”
• Suggest rereading the sentence or the last couple of sentences.
• Suggest skipping the word and reading on, then return to ask, “Now what do you think it is?”
• Try chunking the word while thinking about what would make sense.

Book Choices

Book choices that are easy...

• You can read all the words
• You can read it smoothly- fluently
• Won’t take a lot of time or effort
• Very easy to understand

Book choices that are “just-right”...

• You can learn things
• You like the book
• You can read almost all the words
• You understand almost all of it
• You may have read it before

ü These should be the books you’re reading most of the time

Book choices that are challenging...

• ü It has many words you don’t understand
• It doesn’t make sense to you
• You don’t have the background
• You’re not interested in the topic
• If it’s confusing, it may be too hard.
• Sometimes it’s OK to read these, but
• Not very often
• Not for very long

Most Importantly...

Reading at home should be a positive experience for both you and your child. Providing time to read and having books available are keys to your child’s reading success. Most importantly, focus on what your child is doing well.

Writing in Grade 3

A writer’s notebook is used as a tool to help writers capture their ideas. These ideas can then be cultivated into published pieces as the children learn about the writing process and the craft of writing.

Writing Process:

• Planning
• First draft
• Selection of Writing Piece and Revision
• Edit
• Publish

Various Genre Writing Includes:

• Poetry
• Non-fiction
• Personal Narrative
• Interview Writing
• Letter Writing
• Reflective writing

Word Study

• The purpose of word study in 3rd grade is to specify developmentally appropriate spelling features in order to improve the children’s knowledge of word structure, thereby helping to improve their reading and writing abilities.
• Children are taught to use a variety of spelling strategies.
• Children learn to spell specific high frequency words, based on their individual needs.

Report Card Outcomes and Indicators

Students will become writers.

• Generates ideas
• Develops voice by taking risks and revealing who he/she is
• Uses words and phrases that create a picture in the reader’s mind
• Uses writing process to publish a piece of writing
• Demonstrates an appropriate use of conventions
• Organizes writing pieces
• Uses knowledge of writers craft and text features to enhance writing

Students will become independent readers.

• Practices and uses comprehension strategies being taught
• Chooses appropriate books independently
• Reads for a sustained period of time
• Recognizes writer’s craft and text features in a genre

Students will be comfortable as speakers and listeners

• Conducts research about world communities
• Shares conclusions about world communities with others

Third Grade mathematics is about:

• developing understanding of multiplication and division and strategies for multiplication and division within 100;
• developing understanding of fractions, especially unit fractions (fractions with numerator 1);
• developing understanding of the structure of rectangular arrays and of area; and
• describing and analyzing two-dimensional shapes.

Social Studies in Grade 3

Communities Around the World - Learning About People and Places

In the grade 3 social studies program, students study about communities throughout the world.

The five social studies standards form the basis for this investigation as students learn about the social, political, geographic, economic, and historic characteristics of different world communities. Students learn about communities that reflect the diversity of the world’s peoples and cultures.

They study Western and non-Western examples from a variety of geographic areas. Students also begin to learn about historic chronology by placing important events on time lines. Students locate world communities and learn how different communities meet their basic needs and wants. Students begin to compare the roles of citizenship and the kinds of governments found in various world communities.

Report Card Outcomes and Indicators

Students will analyze a variety of information to draw conclusions about world communities.

• Conducts research about world communities
• Students will use the scientific method to explore the living environment and physical setting.
• Conducts scientific investigations
• Understands and applies scientific concepts

1. Physical Science – Forces and Interactions
2. Life Science –
   • Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems
   • Inheritance and Variation of Traits: Life Cycles and Traits
3. Earth and Space Science – Weather and Climate

Science Lab 

Hands on investigations, experiments and field trips will allow students to discover and reinforce concepts and skills related to the following topics: interactions of forces and motion, interactions of plants and animals in an environment, life cycles and traits, and weather and climate.