Curriculum & Instruction
Page Navigation
- Rose Tree Media School District
- Curriculum
- 3rd Grade
-
Art
In third grade, you will travel through time to learn about art history from prehistoric through modern times.
-
ELA
Reading Workshop
A typical readers’ workshop period consists of a whole class mini-lesson, Independent reading and Reader Response/Share
- Units of Study: Building a Reading Life, Reading to Learn: Grasping Main Ideas and Text Structures, Character Studies, Research Clubs
- Realistic Fiction, Mystery Clubs, Nonfiction, Biographies, etc.
- Book Groups/Book Talks
- Conferencing with students
- Guided Reading and Small Group Instruction: The purpose of guided reading is for students to have time to read and apply strategies and skills that were demonstrated by the teacher during read aloud and shared reading instruction.
Writing Workshop
A typical writer’s workshop period consists of a whole class skill/strategy mini-lesson, Independent Writing (teacher conferences with sm. groups/individual students), Share and Discuss
- Writing Process (prewriting, drafting, writing, editing, revising, publishing)
- Writer’s Notebook – Students will live as writers
- Units of Study: Narrative, Nonfiction, Persuasive
- Conventions – Grammar, Capitalization, Punctuation, etc.
Handwriting Without Tears Word Study: Words Their Way is a developmental spelling, phonics, and vocabulary program. An assessment is given to determine where to begin instruction.
- Words Their Way – Understanding word patterns
- Word Sorts - Categorize, spell, compare/contrast, etc.
- Grammar and Vocabulary
- Daily spelling in writing and other activities
-
Math
Numbers and Operations
- adding and subtracting within 1,000
- place value of ones, tens, and hundreds
- rounding numbers to the nearest 10 or 100
- relationship between addition and subtraction
- introduction to multiplication
- introduction to division
- multiply and divide within 100
- fractions as parts of a whole
- Solve problems using the four operations
- Explain patterns in arithmetic
Geometry
- Identify, compare, and classify shapes by their properties
- partitioning of shapes into equal parts
- area and perimeter of irregular shapes by counting squares
- area and perimeter of rectangles
Measurement
- estimating and measuring temperature, liquid volume, and mass
- measuring lengths (including in fractions of an inch)
- estimating and measuring volumes of liquids
- telling time to the nearest minute and elapsed time
- Make change use a combination of coins and bills
Data Analysis
- Represent and interpret data using tally charts, tables, pictographs, line plots and bar graphs
-
Music
Elementary general music curriculum in Rose Tree Media begins in first grade and aligns with the Pennsylvania Core Standards for the Arts. As the students progress in their musicianship, they are given opportunities to create, perform, and respond to music of a variety of styles, genres, and cultures. Students are introduced to music through singing, dancing, playing classroom instruments with a focus on music literacy and ear training.
In third grade, students are introduced to wind instruments as they begin to learn how to play recorder.
-
Science
Biological Science:
Units - Body Systems & Embryology
- Understand that plants and animals closely resemble their parents
- Identify characteristics that appear in both parents and offspring
- Develop a model to describe the commonalities of life cycles of different organisms
- Illustrate how plants and animals go through predictable life cycles that include birth, growth, development, reproduction and death
- Describe the basic needs of living things and their dependence on light, food, air, water and shelter.
- Identify that some systems are found in nature and some systems are made by humans
- Define a habitat and explain how a change in habitat affects an organism
Physical Science:
Units - Magnets and Electricity
- Identify and classify objects and materials as magnetic or non-magnetic
- Demonstrate that magnets have poles that repel and attract each other
- Identify and classify objects and materials that are conductors or insulators of electricity
- Apply knowledge of basic electrical circuits to the design and construction of simple direct current circuits
- Compare and contrast parallel and series circuits
Earth and Space Science:
Units - Land and Water & Solar System
- Relate the rotation of the earth and day/night, to the apparent movement of the sun, moon and stars across the sky
- Recognize that light travels in a straight line until it strikes an object or travels from one material to another
- Recognize that the light from the sun is an important source of of energy for living and nonliving systems and some source of energy is needed for all organisms to stay alive and grow
- Describe the changes that occur in the observable shape of the moon over the course of a month
- Connect the various forms of precipitation to the weather in a particular place and time.
- Describe basic landforms
- Recognize that the surface of the earth changes due to slow processes and rapid processes
Scientific Method / Inquiry:
- Distinguish between scientific fact and opinion
- Asks questions about objects, organisms and events
- Understand that all scientific investigations involve asking and answering questions and comparing the answer with what is already known
- Plan and conduct a simple investigation and understand that different questions require different kinds of investigations
- Use data/ evidence to construct explanations and understand that scientists develop explanations based on their evidence and compare them with current scientific knowledge
-
Social Studies
Topics of study include:
- Geography - 2 units
- Pennsylvania
- Government/ Public Services- 2 units - Local/city and State and US government
- Immigration
- Economy