Grade 3
Our George Hersey Robertson School Curriculum Guides provide an overview of our comprehensive academic program for our students in Grades 3, 4, and 5. Our curriculum is standards based, aligning with the Connecticut Core Standards which indicate what a student should know and be able to do at each grade level, and state and national standards in the content area. Taken together, the standards, our high quality curriculum, and outstanding instruction will prepare every student for life, learning, and work in the 21st century and allow us to develop empowered learners who have the knowledge, skills, and habits of mind to thrive as members of a complex society.
- Language Arts
- Mathematics
- Science
- Social Studies
- Computer Science
- Art Program
- Music Program
- Physical Education Program
- Health Program
- Library Media Center Program
- Social Emotional Learning
Language Arts
Third graders will engage in a variety of learning opportunities to promote their foundational skills as well as their reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills. In Grade 3 students read widely from a broad range of high-quality increasingly challenging literary and informational texts including texts in social studies, science, and other disciplines. Teachers use a variety of research-based instructional strategies to promote student practice and mastery of skills embedded in the curriculum.
Reading
Phonics & Word Recognition Skills:
- Know and apply grade level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words:
- Identify and know the meaning of the most common prefixes and derivational suffixes.
- Decode words with common Latin suffixes.
- Decode multisyllable words.
- Read grade appropriate irregularly spelled words.
Fluency:
- Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension:
- Read grade-level text with purpose and understanding.
- Read grade-level prose and poetry orally with accuracy, appropriate rate, and expression on successive readings.
- Use context to confirm or self-correct word recognition and understanding, rereading as necessary.
Key Ideas & Details:
- Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers.
- Recount stories, including fables, folktales, and myths from diverse cultures; determine central message, lesson, or moral and explain how it is conveyed through key details in text.
- Describe characters in a story (e.g. their traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events.
- Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers.
- Determine the main idea of a text; recount the key details and explain how they support the main idea.
- Describe the relationship between a series of historical events, scientific ideas or concepts, or steps in technical procedures in a text, using language that pertains to time, sequence, and cause/effect.
Craft & Structure:
- Determining the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, distinguishing literal from nonliteral language.
- Refer to parts of stories, dramas, and poems when writing or speaking about a text, using terms such as chapter, scene, and stanza; describe how each successive part builds on earlier sections.
- Determining the meaning of general academic and domain-specific words and phrases in a text relevant to grade 3 topic or subject area.
- Use text features and search tools (e.g. key words, sidebars, hyperlinks) to locate information relevant to a given topic efficiently.
- Distinguish their own point of view from that of the author of a text.
Integration Of Knowledge & Ideas:
- Explain how specific aspects of a text’s illustrations contribute to what is conveyed by the words in a story (e.g. create mood, emphasize aspects of a character or setting).
- Compare and contrast the themes, settings, and plots of stories written by the same author about the same or similar characters (e.g. in books from a series).
- Use of information gained from illustrations (e.g. maps, photographs) and the words in a text to demonstrate understanding of the text (e.g. where, when, why, and how key events occur).
- Describe the logical connection between particular sentences and paragraphs in a text (e.g. comparison, cause/effect, first/second/third in a sequence).
- Compare and contrast the most common points and key details presented in two texts on the same topic.
Range Of Reading & Level Of Text Complexity:
- By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poetry, at the high end of the grades 2-3 text complexity band independently and proficiently.
- By the end of the year, read and comprehend informational texts, including history/social studies, science, and technical texts, at the high end of the grades 2-3 text complexity band independently and proficiently.
Language
Conventions Of Standard English:
- Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking:
- Explain the function of nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs in general and their functions in particular sentences.
- Form and use regular and irregular plural nouns.
- Use abstract nouns.
- Form and use irregular and irregular verbs.
- Form and use the simple (e.g. I walked; I walk; I will walk) verb tenses.
- Ensure subject-verb and pronoun-antecedent agreement*.
- Form and use comparative and superlative adjectives and adverbs, and choose between them depending on what is to be modified.
- Use coordinating and subordinating conjunctions.
- Produce simple, compound, and complex sentences.
- Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing:
- Capitalize appropriate words in titles.
- Use commas in address.
- Use commas and quotation marks in dialogue.
- Form and use possessives.
- Use conventional spelling for high-frequency and other studies words and for adding suffixes to base words (e.g. sitting, smiled, cries, happiness).
- Use spelling patterns and generalizations (e.g. word families, position-based spellings, syllable patterns, ending rules, meaningful word parts) in writing.
- Consult reference materials, including beginning dictionaries, as needed to check and correct spellings.
Knowledge Of Language:
- Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading, or listening:
- Choose words and phrases for effect*.
- Recognize and observe differences between the conventions of spoken and written standard English.
Vocabulary Acquisition & Use:
- Determine and clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on Grade 3 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies:
- Use sentence-level context as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.
- Determine the meaning of the new word formed when a known affix is added to a known word (e.g. agreeable/disagreeable, comfortable/uncomfortable, care/careless, heat/preheat).
- Use a known root word as a clue to the meaning of an unknown word with the same root (e.g. company, companion).
- Use glossaries or beginning dictionaries, both print and digital, to determine or clarify the precise meaning of key words and phrases.
- Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships and nuances in word meanings:
- Distinguish the literal and nonliteral meanings of words and phrases in context (e.g. take steps).
- Identify real-life connections between words and their use (e.g. describe people who are friendly or helpful).
- Distinguish shades of meaning among related words that describe states of mind or degrees of certainty (e.g. knew, believed, suspected, heard, wondered.
- Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate conversational, general academic, and domain-specific words and phrases, including those that signal spatial and temporal relationships (e.g. After dinner that night we went looking for them).
Writing
Text Types and Purposes:
- Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons:
- Introduce the topic or text they are writing about, state an opinion, and create an organizational structure that lists reasons.
- Provide reasons that support the opinion.
- Use linking words and phrases (e.g. because, therefore, since, for example) to connect opinion and reasons.
- Provide a conclusion statement or section.
- Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly:
- Introduce a topic and group related information together; include illustrations when useful to aiding comprehension.
- Develop the topic with facts, definitions, and details.
- Use linking words and phrases (e.g. also, another, and more, but) to connect ideas within categories of information.
- Provide a concluding statement or section.
- Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences:
- Establish a situation and introduce a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally.
- Use dialogue and descriptions of actions, thoughts, and feelings to develop experiences and events or show the response of characters to situations.
- Use temporal words and phrases to signal event order.
- Provide a sense of closure.
Production and Distribution of Writing:
- With guidance and support from adults, produce writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task and purpose. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined in standards 1-3 above.).
- With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, and editing. (Editing for conventions should demonstrate command of Language standards 1-3 up to and including grade 3 here.).
- With guidance and support from adults, use technology to produce and publish writing (using keyboarding skills) as well as to interact and collaborate with others.
Research to Build and Present Knowledge:
- Conduct short research projects that build knowledge about a topic.
- Recall information from experiences or gather information from print and digital resources; take brief notes on sources and sort evidence into provided categories.
Range of Writing:
- Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences.
Speaking and Listening
Comprehension and Collaboration:
- Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 3 topics and texts, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly:
- Come to discussions prepared, having read or studied required material; explicitly draw on that preparation and other information known about the topic to explore ideas under discussion.
- Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions (e.g. gaining floor in respectful ways, listening to others with care, speaking one at a time about topics and texts under discussion).
- Ask questions to check understanding of information presented, stay on topic, and link their comments to the remarks of others.
- Explain their own ideas and understanding in light of the discussion.
- Determine the main ideas and supporting details of a text read aloud or information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally.
- Ask and answer questions about information from a speaker, offering appropriate elaboration and detail.
Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas:
- Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience with appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details, speaking clearly at an understandable pace.
- Create engaging audio recordings of stories or poems that demonstrate fluid reading at understandable pace; add visual displays when appropriate to emphasize or enhance certain facts or details.
- Speak in complete sentences when appropriate to task and situation in order to provide requested detail or clarification. (See grade 3 Language standards 1 and 3 here for specific expectations).
Mathematics
In Grade 3, instructional time should focus on four critical areas: (1) developing understanding of multiplication and division and strategies for multiplication and division within 100; (2) developing understanding of fractions, especially unit fractions (fractions with numerator 1); (3) developing understanding of the structure of rectangular arrays and of area; and (4) describing and analyzing two-dimensional shapes.
STANDARDS FOR MATHEMATICAL PRACTICE
The Standards for Mathematical Practice describe ways in which developing student practitioners of the discipline of mathematics increasingly ought to engage with the subject matter as they grow in mathematical maturity and expertise. Teachers attend to the need to connect the eight mathematical practices to mathematical content in mathematics instruction.
- Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
- Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
- Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
- Model with mathematics.
- Use appropriate tools strategically.
- Attend to precision.
- Look for and make use of structure.
- Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.
- Operations and Algebraic Thinking
- Numbers and Operations Base Ten
- Numbers and Operations - Fractions
- Measurement and Data
- Geometry
Operations and Algebraic Thinking
Represent and solve problems involving multiplication and division:
- Interpret products of whole numbers, e.g., interpret 5 × 7 as the total number of objects in 5 groups of 7 objects each. For example, describe a context in which a total number of objects can be expressed as 5 × 7.
- Interpret whole-number quotients of whole numbers, e.g., interpret 56 ÷ 8 as the number of objects in each share when 56 objects are partitioned equally into 8 shares, or as a number of shares when 56 objects are partitioned into equal shares of 8 objects each. For example, describe a context in which a number of shares or a number of groups can be expressed as 56 ÷ 8.
- Use multiplication and division within 100 to solve word problems in situations involving equal groups, arrays, and measurement quantities, e.g., by using:
- drawings and equations with a symbol for the unknown number to represent the problem.
- Determine the unknown whole number in a multiplication or division equation relating three whole numbers. For example, determine the unknown number that makes the equation true in each of the equations 8 × ? = 48, 5 = _ ÷ 3, 6 × 6 = ?.
Understand properties of multiplication and the relationship between multiplication and division:
- Apply properties of operations as strategies to multiply and divide. Examples: If 6 × 4 = 24 is known, then 4 × 6 = 24 is also known. (Commutative property of multiplication.) 3 × 5 × 2 can be found by 3 × 5 = 15, then 15 × 2 = 30, or by 5 × 2 = 10, then 3 × 10 = 30. (Associative property of multiplication.) Knowing that 8 × 5 = 40 and 8 × 2 = 16, one can find 8 × 7 as 8 × (5 + 2) = (8 × 5) + (8 × 2) = 40 + 16 = 56. (Distributive property).
- Understand division as an unknown-factor problem. For example, find 32 ÷ 8 by finding the number that makes 32 when multiplied by 8.
Multiply and divide within 100:
- Fluently multiply and divide within 100, using strategies such as the relationship between multiplication and division (e.g., knowing that 8 × 5 = 40, one knows 40 ÷ 5 = 8) or properties of operations. By the end of Grade 3, know from memory all products of two one-digit numbers.
Solve problems involving the four operations, and identify and explain patterns in arithmetic:
- Solve two-step word problems using the four operations. Represent these problems using equations with a letter standing for the unknown quantity. Assess the reasonableness of answers using mental computation and estimation strategies including rounding.
- Identify arithmetic patterns (including patterns in the addition table or multiplication table), and explain them using properties of operations. For example, observe that 4 times a number is always even, and explain why 4 times a number can be decomposed into two equal addends.
Numbers and Operations Base Ten
Use place value understanding and properties of operations to perform multi-digit arithmetic:
- Use place value understanding to round whole numbers to the nearest 10 or 100.
- Fluently add and subtract within 1000 using strategies and algorithms based on place value, properties of operations, and/or the relationship between addition and subtraction.
- Multiply one-digit whole numbers by multiples of 10 in the range 10-90 (e.g., 9 × 80, 5 × 60) using strategies based on place value and properties of operations.
Numbers and Operations - Fractions
Develop understanding of fractions as numbers:
- Understand a fraction 1/b as the quantity formed by 1 part when a whole is partitioned into b equal parts; understand a fraction a/b as the quantity formed by a parts of size 1/b.
- Understand a fraction as a number on the number line; represent fractions on a number line diagram:
- Represent a fraction 1/b on a number line diagram by defining the interval from 0 to 1 as the whole and partitioning it into b equal parts. Recognize that each part has size 1/b and that the endpoint of the part based at 0 locates the number 1/b on the number line.
- Represent a fraction a/b on a number line diagram by marking off a lengths of 1/b from 0. Recognize that the resulting interval has size a/b and that its endpoint locates the number a/b on the number line.
- Explain equivalence of fractions in special cases, and compare fractions by reasoning about their size:
- Understand two fractions as equivalent (equal) if they are the same size, or the same point on a number line.
- Recognize and generate simple equivalent fractions, e.g., 1/2 = 2/4, 4/6 = 2/3. Explain why the fractions are equivalent, e.g., by using a visual fraction model.
- Express whole numbers as fractions, and recognize fractions that are equivalent to whole numbers. Examples: Express 3 in the form 3 = 3/1; recognize that 6/1 = 6; locate 4/4 and 1 at the same point of a number line diagram.
- Compare two fractions with the same numerator or the same denominator by reasoning about their size. Recognize that comparisons are valid only when the two fractions refer to the same whole. Record the results of comparisons with the symbols >, =, or <, and justify the conclusions, e.g., by using a visual fraction mode.
Measurement and Data
Solve problems involving measurement and estimation:
- Tell and write time to the nearest minute and measure time intervals in minutes.
- Solve word problems involving addition and subtraction of time intervals in minutes, e.g., by representing the problem on a number line diagram.
- Measure and estimate liquid volumes and masses of objects using standard units of grams (g), kilograms (kg), and liters (l).
- Add, subtract, multiply, or divide to solve one-step word problems involving masses or volumes that are given in the same units, e.g., by using drawings (such as a beaker with a measurement scale) to represent the problem.
Represent and interpret data:
- Draw a scaled picture graph and a scaled bar graph to represent a data set with several categories.
- Solve one- and two-step "how many more" and "how many less" problems using information presented in scaled bar graphs. For example, draw a bar graph in which each square in the bar graph might represent 5 pets
- Generate measurement data by measuring lengths using rulers marked with halves and fourths of an inch. Show the data by making a line plot, where the horizontal scale is marked off in appropriate units— whole numbers, halves, or quarters.
Geometric measurement: understand concepts of area and relate area to multiplication and to addition:
- Recognize area as an attribute of plane figures and understand concepts of area measurement:
- A square with side length 1 unit, called "a unit square," is said to have "one square unit" of area, and can be used to measure area.
- A plane figure which can be covered without gaps or overlaps by n unit squares is said to have an area of n square units.
- Measure areas by counting unit squares (square cm, square m, square in, square ft, and improvised units).
- Relate area to the operations of multiplication and addition:
- Find the area of a rectangle with whole-number side lengths by tiling it, and show that the area is the same as would be found by multiplying the side lengths.
- Multiply side lengths to find areas of rectangles with whole-number side lengths in the context of solving real world and mathematical problems, and represent whole-number products as rectangular areas in mathematical reasoning.
- Use tiling to show in a concrete case that the area of a rectangle with whole-number side lengths a and b + c is the sum of a × b and a × c. Use area models to represent the distributive property in mathematical reasoning.
- Recognize area as additive. Find areas of rectilinear figures by decomposing them into non-overlapping rectangles and adding the areas of the non-overlapping parts, applying this technique to solve real world problems.
Geometric measurement: recognize perimeter:
- Solve real world and mathematical problems involving perimeters of polygons, including finding the perimeter given the side lengths, finding an unknown side length, and exhibiting rectangles with the same perimeter and different areas or with the same area and different perimeters.
Geometry
Reason with shapes and their attributes:
- Understand that shapes in different categories (e.g., rhombuses, rectangles, and others) may share attributes (e.g., having four sides), and that the shared attributes can define a larger category (e.g., quadrilaterals). Recognize rhombuses, rectangles, and squares as examples of quadrilaterals, and draw examples of quadrilaterals that do not belong to any of these subcategories.
- Partition shapes into parts with equal areas. Express the area of each part as a unit fraction of the whole. For example, partition a shape into 4 parts with equal area, and describe the area of each part as 1/4 of the area of the shape
Science
In Grade 3, science programming focuses on three standards, the three dimensions of science: science and engineering practices, cross cutting concepts, and disciplinary core ideas. Each dimension works with the other two to help students build a cohesive understanding of science over time. Science and Engineering Practices describe what scientists do to investigate the natural world and what engineers do to design and build systems. These practices better explain and extend what is meant by “inquiry” in science. Crosscutting Concepts help students explore connections across the topics in science. When these concepts, such as “cause and effect”, are made explicit for students, they can help students develop a coherent and scientifically-based view of the world around them. Disciplinary Core Ideas are the key ideas in science which build on each other as students progress through grade levels and are grouped into the following four domains: Physical Science, Life Science, Earth and Space Science, and Engineering.
Science and Engineering Practices
Asking and Answering Questions:
- Asking questions and defining problems in 3-5 builds on K–2 experiences and progresses to specifying qualitative relationships.
- Ask questions about what would happen if a variable is changed.
- Identify scientific (testable) and non-scientific (non-testable) questions.
- Ask questions that can be investigated and predict reasonable outcomes based on patterns such as cause and effect relationships.
- Use prior knowledge to describe problems that can be solved.
- Define a simple design problem that can be solved through the development of an object, tool, process, or system and includes several criteria for success and constraints.
Developing and Using Models:
- Modeling in 3–5 builds on K–2 experiences and progresses to building and revising simple models and using models to represent events and design solutions. Identify limitations of models.
- Collaboratively develop and/or revise a model based on evidence that shows the relationships among variables for frequent and regular occurring events.
- Develop a model using an analogy, example, or abstract representation to describe a scientific principle or design solution.
- Develop and/or use models to describe and/or predict phenomena.
- Develop a diagram or simple physical prototype to convey a proposed object, tool, or process.
- Use a model to test cause and effect relationships or interactions concerning the functioning of a natural or designed system.
Planning and Carrying Out Investigations:
- Planning and carrying out investigations to answer questions or test solutions to problems in 3–5 builds on K– 2 experiences and progresses to include investigations that control variables and provide evidence to support explanations or design solutions.
- Plan and conduct an investigation collaboratively to produce data to serve as the basis for evidence, using fair tests in which variables are controlled and the number of trials considered.
- Evaluate appropriate methods and/or tools for collecting data.
- Make observations and/or measurements to produce data to serve as the basis for evidence for an explanation of a phenomenon or test a design solution.
- Make predictions about what would happen if a variable changes.
- Test two different models of the same proposed object, tool, or process to determine which better meets criteria for success.
Analyzing and Interpreting Data:
- Analyzing data in 3–5 builds on K–2 experiences and progresses to introducing quantitative approaches to collecting data and conducting multiple trials of qualitative observations.
- When possible and feasible, digital tools should be used.
- Represent data in tables and/or various graphical displays (bar graphs, pictographs and/or pie charts) to reveal patterns that indicate relationships.
- Analyze and interpret data to make sense of phenomena, using logical reasoning, mathematics, and/or computation.
- Compare and contrast data collected by different groups in order to discuss similarities and differences in their findings.
- Analyze data to refine a problem statement or the design of a proposed object, tool, or process.
- Use data to evaluate and refine design solutions.
Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking:
- Mathematical and computational thinking in 3–5 builds on K–2 experiences and progresses to extending quantitative measurements to a variety of physical properties and using computation and mathematics to analyze data and compare alternative design solutions.
- Decide if qualitative or quantitative data are best to determine whether a proposed object or tool meets criteria for success.
- Organize simple data sets to reveal patterns that suggest relationships.
- Describe, measure, estimate, and/or graph quantities (e.g., area, volume, weight, time) to address scientific and engineering questions and problems.
- Create and/or use graphs and/or charts generated from simple algorithms to compare alternative solutions to an engineering problem.
Construction Explanations and Designing Solutions:
- Constructing explanations and designing solutions in 3–5 builds on K–2 experiences and progresses to the use of evidence in constructing explanations that specify variables that describe and predict phenomena and in designing multiple solutions to design problems.
- Construct an explanation of observed relationships (e.g., the distribution of plants in the backyard).
- Use evidence (e.g., measurements, observations, patterns) to construct or support an explanation or design a solution to a problem.
- Identify the evidence that supports particular points in an explanation. Apply scientific ideas to solve design problems.
- Generate and compare multiple solutions to a problem based on how well they meet the criteria and constraints of the design solution.
Engaging in Argument from Evidence:
- Engaging in argument from evidence in 3–5 builds on K–2 experiences and progresses to critiquing the scientific explanations or solutions proposed by peers by citing relevant evidence about the natural and designed world(s).
- Compare and refine arguments based on an evaluation of the evidence presented.
- Distinguish among facts, reasoned judgment based on research findings, and speculation in an explanation.
- Respectfully provide and receive critiques from peers about a proposed procedure, explanation, or model by citing relevant evidence and posing specific questions.
- Construct and/or support an argument with evidence, data, and/or a model.
- Use data to evaluate claims about cause and effect.
- Make a claim about the merit of a solution to a problem by citing relevant evidence about how it meets the criteria and constraints of the problem.
Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information:
- Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information in 3–5 builds on K–2 experiences and progresses to evaluating the merit and accuracy of ideas and methods.
- Read and comprehend grade appropriate complex texts and/or other reliable media to summarize and obtain scientific and technical ideas and describe how they are supported by evidence.
- Compare and/or combine across complex texts and/or other reliable media to support the engagement in other scientific and/or engineering practices.
- Combine information in written text with that contained in corresponding tables, diagrams, and/or charts to support the engagement in other scientific and/or engineering practices.
- Obtain and combine information from books and/or other reliable media to explain phenomena or solutions to a design problem.
- Communicate scientific and/or technical information orally and/or in written formats, including various forms of media as well as tables, diagrams, and charts.
Cross Cutting Concepts
Patterns:
- Students identify similarities and differences in order to sort and classify natural objects and designed products.
- They identify patterns related to time, including simple rates of change and cycles, and to use these patterns to make predictions.
Cause and Effect:
- Students routinely identify and test causal relationships and use these relationships to explain change.
- They understand events that occur together with regularity might or might not signify a cause and effect relationship.
Scale Proportion and Quantity:
- Students recognize natural objects and observable phenomena exist from the very small to the immensely large.
- They use standard units to measure and describe physical quantities such as weight, time, temperature, and volume.
System and System Models:
- Students understand that a system is a group of related parts that make up a whole and can carry out functions its individual parts cannot.
- They can also describe a system in terms of its components and their interactions.
Energy and Matter:
- Students learn matter is made of particles and energy can be transferred in various ways and between objects.
- Students observe the conservation of matter by tracking matter flows and cycles before and after processes and recognizing the total weight of substances does not change.
Structure and Function:
- Students learn different materials have different substructures, which can sometimes be observed; and substructures have shapes and parts that serve functions.
Stability and Change:
- Students measure change in terms of differences over time, and observe that change may occur at different rates.
- Students learn some systems appear stable, but over long periods of time they will eventually change.
Disciplinary Core Ideas:
- The performance expectations in third grade help students formulate answers to questions such as:
- What is typical weather in different parts of the world and during different times of the year?
- How can the impact of weather-related hazards be reduced? How do organisms vary in their traits?
- How are plants, animals, and environments of the past similar or different from current plants, animals, and environments?
- What happens to organisms when their environment changes?
- How do equal and unequal forces on an object affect the object?
- How can magnets be used?
Social Studies
In third grade, students will engage in a yearlong study of Connecticut and local towns. They will analyze the impact of geography, economics, and government structures to study the history and contemporary society of Connecticut and local towns. The study of Connecticut requires that students generate and research compelling questions across the four core disciplines. Such questions may include:
- How has our local community contributed to Connecticut’s story, past and present?
- In what ways has our town and Connecticut changed and/or stayed the same over time?
- Why is our town, and our state, the way that it is?
- Is there a Connecticut state identity?
- What was the significance of Connecticut’s contribution to America’s story?
History
- Create and use a chronological sequence of related events to compare developments that happened at the same time.
- Compare life in specific historical time periods to life today.
- Generate questions about individuals who have shaped significant historical changes and continuities.
- Explain connections among historical contexts and people’s perspectives at the time.
- Describe how people’s perspectives shaped the historical sources they created.
- Summarize how different kinds of historical sources are used to explain events in the past.
- Compare information provided by different historical sources about the past.
- Infer the intended audience and purpose of a historical source from information within the source itself.
- Generate questions about multiple historical sources and their relationships to particular historical events and developments.
- Use information about a historical source, including the maker, date, place of origin, intended audience, and purpose to judge the extent to which the source is useful for studying a particular topic.
- Explain probable causes and effects of events and developments.
Civics
- Distinguish the responsibilities and powers of government officials at various levels and branches of government and in different times and places.
- Explain how a democracy relies on people’s responsible participation, and draw implications for how individuals should participate.
- Explain how groups of people make rules to create responsibilities and protect freedoms.
- Identify core civic virtues and democratic principles that guide government, society, and communities.
- Identify the beliefs, experiences, perspectives, and values that underlie their own and others’ points of view about civic issues.
- Explain how rules and laws change society and how people change rules and laws.
- Explain how policies are developed to address public problems.
Economics
- Compare the benefits and costs of individual choices.
- Identify examples of the variety of resources (human capital, physical capital, and natural resources) that are used.
- Explain why individuals and businesses specialize and trade.
- Explain the ways in which the government pays for the goods and services it provides.
Geography
- Construct maps and other graphic representations of both familiar and unfamiliar places.
- Use maps, satellite images, photographs, and other representations to explain relationships between the locations of places and regions and their environmental characteristics.
- Use maps of different scales to describe the locations of cultural and environmental characteristics.
- Explain how culture influences the way people modify and adapt to their environments.
- Explain how the cultural and environmental characteristics of places change over time.
- Describe how environmental and cultural characteristics influence population distribution in specific places or regions.
- Explain how cultural and environmental characteristics affect the distribution and movement of people, goods, and ideas.
- Explain how human settlements and movements relate to the locations and use of various natural resources.
- Analyze the effects of catastrophic environmental and technological events on human settlements and migration.
Computer Science
In Grade 3 all students engage in a unit to continue to learn the concept and practices of computer science. Starting with computer-free activities and progressing to programming in a block-based language on a device, students learn how to think computationally about a program. Combining their writing and programming skills, on a device students develop interactive stories with multiple plots. Computer science is key to developing and integrating Coventry Public Schools Portrait of the Graduate Competencies such as critical thinking, engaged collaborating, effective communication, and authentic innovating.
Art Program
Focused on visual arts including traditional fine arts such as drawing, painting, sculpture, and ceramics, our Grade 3 art program involves our students in four artistic processes: creating art, presenting art, responding to art, and connecting to art.
Generate and conceptualize artistic ideas and work:
- Elaborate on an imaginative idea.
- Apply knowledge of available resources, tools, and technologies to investigate personal ideas through the art-making process.
Organize and develop artistic ideas and work:
- Create personally satisfying artwork using a variety of artistic processes and materials.
- Demonstrate an understanding of the safe and proficient use of materials, tools, and equipment for a variety of artistic processes.
Refine and complete artistic work:
- Elaborate visual information by adding details in an artwork to enhance emerging meaning.
Convey meaning through the presentation of artistic work:
- Identify and explain how and where different cultures record and illustrate stories and history of life through art.
Perceive and analyze artistic work:
- Speculate about processes an artist uses to create a work of art.
- Determine messages communicated by an image.
- Interpret art by analyzing use of media to create subject matter, characteristics of form, and mood.
- Evaluate an artwork based on given criteria.
Interpret intent and meaning in artistic work:
- Interpret art by analyzing use of media to create subject matter, characteristics of form, and mood.
Synthesize and relate knowledge and personal experiences to make art:
- Develop a work of art based on observations of surroundings.
- Recognize that responses to art change depending on knowledge of the time and place in which it was made.
Music Program
Students in Grade 3 will create music, communicate effectively by performing diverse works of quality music, critically think and respond with social and emotional awareness to diverse musical genres and connect their learning and personal experience to music. Students will use mallet instruments, world percussion, and other learning tools to reach the Coventry Public Schools Music Department Program Goals.
Generate musical ideas for various purposes and contexts:
- Improvise rhythmic and melodic ideas, and describe connection to specific purpose and context (such as personal and social).
- Generate musical ideas (such as rhythms and melodies) within a given tonality and/or meter.
Select and develop musical ideas for defined purposes and contexts:
- Demonstrate selected musical ideas for a simple improvisation or composition to express intent, and describe connection to a specific purpose and context.
- Use standard and/or iconic notation and/or recording technology to document personal rhythmic and melodic musical ideas.
Evaluate and refine selected musical ideas to create musical work(s) that meet appropriate criteria:
- Evaluate, refine, and document revisions to personal musical ideas, applying teacher-provided and collaboratively developed criteria and feedback.
Share creative musical work that conveys intent, demonstrates craftsmanship, and exhibits originality:
- Present the final version of personal created music to others, and describe connection to expressive intent.
Select varied musical works to present based on interest, knowledge, technical skill, and context:
- Demonstrate and explain how the selection of music to perform is influenced by personal interest, knowledge, purpose, and context.
Analyze the structure and context of varied musical works and their implications for performance:
- Demonstrate understanding of the structure in music selected for performance.
- When analyzing selected music, read and perform rhythmic patterns and melodic phrases using iconic and standard notation.
- Describe how context (such as personal and social) can inform a performance.
Develop personal interpretations that consider creators’ intent:
- Demonstrate and describe how intent is conveyed through expressive qualities (such as dynamics and tempo).
Evaluate and refine personal and ensemble performances, individually or in collaboration with others:
- Apply teacher provided and collaboratively developed criteria and feedback to evaluate accuracy of ensemble performances.
- Rehearse to refine technical accuracy, expressive qualities, and identified performance challenges.
Perform expressively, with appropriate interpretation and technical accuracy, and in a manner appropriate to the audience and context:
- Perform music with expression and technical accuracy.
- Demonstrate performance decorum and audience etiquette appropriate for the context and venue.
Choose music appropriate for a specific purpose or context:
- Demonstrate and describe how selected music connects to and is influenced by specific interests, experiences, or purposes.
Analyze how the structure and context of varied musical works inform the response:
- Demonstrate and describe how a response to music can be informed by the structure, the use of the elements of music, and context (such as personal and social).
Support interpretations of musical works that reflect creators’/performers’ expressive intent:
- Demonstrate and describe how the expressive qualities (such as dynamics and tempo) are used in performers’ interpretations to reflect expressive intent.
Support evaluations of musical works and performances based on analysis, interpretation, and established criteria:
- Evaluate musical works and performances, applying established criteria, and describe appropriateness to the context.
Synthesize and relate knowledge and personal experiences to make music:
- Demonstrate how interests, knowledge, and skills relate to personal choices and intent when creating, performing, and responding to music.
Relate musical ideas and works with varied context to deepen understanding:
- Demonstrate understanding of relationships between music and the other arts, other disciplines, varied contexts, and daily life.
Physical Education Program
Our Physical Education Program helps our children obtain the knowledge and skills they need to become physically educated. Our Grade 3 programming focuses on motor skills, concepts and strategies related to physical activity, physical fitness, respectful social behavior during physical activity, and promoting the understanding of the benefits of physical activity.
Motor Skill Performance:
- Students will demonstrate competency in motor skills and movement patterns needed to perform a variety of physical activities.
- Demonstrate the ability to stop and start on a signal; combine sequences of several motor skills in an organized way; and move through an environment with body control.
Applying Concepts and Strategies:
- Demonstrate an understanding of body awareness concepts by identifying large and small body parts; show understanding of the quality of movement concepts and apply them to psychomotor skills (e.g., demonstrating momentary stillness in balance activities, distinguishing when to kick a ball softly or with force); and show understanding of space concepts by identifying and demonstrating personal and general space.
- Follow safety and age-appropriate classroom and playground rules and procedures.
Engaging in Physical Activity:
- Engage in physical activities when presented with opportunities and with teacher encouragement. Engage in a wide variety of gross-motor activities that are child-selected and teacher-initiated.
- Participate in healthy physical activity, and demonstrate understanding that physical activity is beneficial to good health.
- Demonstrate understanding that different movements are performed by different body parts, singly and in combination (e.g., kicking with foot, throwing with hand).
Physical Fitness:
- Demonstrate understanding that different physical activities have different effects on the body (e.g., running, walking and sitting cause heartbeat and breathing to be faster, not as fast, and slow, respectively).
Responsible Behavior:
- Demonstrate safe behavior for self and toward others by following established class rules, procedures and safe practices with teacher guidance and reinforcement.
- Interact appropriately with peers and familiar adults (e.g., sharing, taking turns, following rules) with teacher guidance and reinforcement; stay on task for short periods with teacher supervision; listen quietly without interruption for short periods with teacher reinforcement; and exhibit self-control in group situations.
- Demonstrate willingness to play with any child in the class; and recognize similarities and appreciate differences in people.
Benefits of Physical Activity:
- Participate in creative movement and dance; identify several activities that are personally enjoyable; and use a variety of means for self-expression.
- Demonstrate recognition that physical activity is beneficial to good health.
Health Program
Our Health Program prepares students by providing them with learning experiences to support their abilities to access health information and services to maintain or improve their own health and the health of others; in addition, students will acquire skills and knowledge that encourage lifetime healthy behaviors.
Alcohol, Nicotine, and Other Drugs:
- Explain why household products are harmful if intentionally absorbed or inhaled.
- Explain the benefits and correct use of medicines and potential risks associated with inappropriate use of medicines.
- Identify short- and long-term effects of alcohol and nicotine use, including secondhand effects.
- Explain the dangers of experimenting with nicotine and alcohol.
- Describe family rules about avoiding nicotine and alcohol use.
- Identify the social impacts of ANOD use (e.g. family, friends, peers).
Healthy Relationships:
- List healthy ways to express affection, love, and friendship.
- Identify characteristics and benefits of healthy family and peer relationships.
- Describe the value of others’ talents and strengths.
- Describe gender-role stereotypes and their potential impact on self and others.
- Define and discuss consent as it relates to personal boundaries.
Violence Prevention:
- Summarize the impact of teasing or bullying others.
- Identify nonviolent ways to manage anger.
- Describe the difference between mean spirited behavior, bullying, and harassment.
- Explain the difference between tattling and reporting aggressive or violent behavior.
- Explain what to do if you see bullying, fighting, and/ or violence.
Healthy Eating and Physical Activity:
- Name the food groups and variety of nutritious food choices for each food group.
- Explain the importance of eating a variety of foods from all the food groups.
- Describe the physical, mental, social, and academic benefits of healthful eating habits and physical activity.
- Identify nutritious and non nutritious beverages.
- Describe the benefits of consuming plenty of water. HEPA 1.6.5 Describe the benefits of limiting the consumption of solid fat, added sugar, and sodium.
- Explain the concept of eating in moderation.
- Explain body signals that tell a person when they are hungry and when they are full.
Sexual Health:
- Describe basic reproductive body parts and their functions.
- Explain common human sexual development and the role of hormones (e.g., romantic feelings, mood swings, timing of pubertal onset).
- Describe the range of physical, social, and emotional changes that occur during puberty.
- Explain how puberty and development can vary greatly and still be normal.
Optimal Wellness and Disease Prevention:
- Describe ways to prevent the spread of germs that cause infectious diseases.
- Describe the benefits of personal health care practices such as tooth brushing and flossing, hand washing, covering a cough and sneeze, washing hair and bathing regularly.
- Define the terms communicable and noncommunicable disease and identify ways to help prevent disease (e.g. HIV, diabetes, cancer, heart disease).
- Describe symptoms that prevent a person from daily activities (i.e. going to school, practices, playing with friends, etc.).
- Develop an awareness and empathy for health problems associated with common childhood chronic diseases or conditions such as asthma, allergies, diabetes, and epilepsy.
- Describe the importance of seeking help and treatment for diseases.
Sexual Assault and Abuse Prevention:
- Define consent in a variety of settings (e.g. social interactions, playground interactions, physical contact, holding hands, kissing, etc.).
- Distinguish between “appropriate” and “inappropriate” touch.
- Explain that inappropriate touches should be reported to a trusted adult.
- Explain that everyone has the right to tell others not to touch his or her body.
Mental and Emotional Health:
- Explain why sleep and rest are important for proper growth and good health.
- Explain what it means to be mentally or emotionally healthy.
- Describe the relationship between feelings and behavior and describe appropriate ways to express a variety of feelings (i.e. anger, happiness, sadness, frustration, excitement, etc.).
- Identify feelings and emotions associated with loss and grief.
- Identify role models who demonstrate positive emotional health.
- Explain the importance of talking with parents and other trusted adults about feelings.
- Describe the importance of being aware of one’s own feelings and of being sensitive to the feelings of others.
- Give examples of prosocial behaviors (e.g., helping others, being respectful of others, cooperation, consideration).
- Explain the importance of telling an adult if someone is in danger of hurting themselves or others.
Safety and Injury Prevention:
- Identify ways to reduce risk of injuries while riding in a motor vehicle.
- List examples of dangerous or risky behaviors that might lead to injuries.
- Describe how to ride a bike, skateboard, ride a scooter, and/or inline skate safely.
- Identify ways to reduce risk of injuries in case of a fire, around water, and from falls.
- Identify ways to protect vision or hearing from injury.
- Identify ways to reduce injuries from firearms.
- Identify ways to reduce injuries as a pedestrian.
- Identify safety precautions for playing and working outdoors in different kinds of weather and climates.
- List ways to prevent injuries at home, school and community.
- Identify ways to reduce risk of injuries from animal and insect bites and stings.
- Explain why household products are harmful if ingested or inhaled.
- Explain what to do if someone is poisoned or injured and needs help.
- Identify equipment needed for protection in sports and recreational activities, such as mouthpieces, pads and helmets.
- Explain how hearing can be damaged by loud sounds.
- Describe how vision can be damaged.
- Describe ways to prevent vision or hearing damage.
- Describe ways to prevent harmful effects of the sun.
Once every three years we provide a presentation to students in Grades 3-5 on firearm safety. Parents may choose to exempt their students from these presentations. Using developmentally age-appropriate instructional materials, our presentation focuses on the following key points:
- If you see an unattended firearm, leave it alone, do not touch it, and get an adult to put it away.
- Treat every firearm as if it is loaded.
- Never point a firearm at another person.
- Firearms are not toys-never play with a firearm.
- Never touch a firearm unless an adult you trust supervises and assists you and you have your parents’ or guardians’ permission.
- If your family has firearms in the house, your friends may find it an irresistible temptation. Never show a firearm to another child.
- Firearms are not illegal, nor is legally possessing a firearm any indication of a person’s character.
- Some professions require having firearms; police carry firearms to protect us.
Library Media Center Program
The GHR school library environment provides students access to information and technology, connecting learning to real-world events. In the library, learners engage with relevant information resources and digital learning opportunities. The Library Media Center promotes a culture of reading by providing access to high-quality print and digital reading materials that encourage students to become lifelong learners and readers.
Inquire:
- Learners display curiosity and initiative by:
- Formulating questions about a personal interest or a curricular topic.
- Recalling prior and background knowledge as context for new meaning.
- Learners engage with new knowledge by following a process that includes:
- Using evidence to investigate questions.
- Devising and implementing a plan to fill knowledge gaps.
- Generating products that illustrate learning.
- Learners adapt, communicate, and exchange learning products with others in a cycle that includes:
- Interacting with content presented by others.
- Providing constructive feedback.
- Acting on feedback to improve.
- Sharing products with an authentic audience.
- Learners participate in an ongoing inquiry-based process by:
- Continually seeking knowledge.
- Engaging in sustained inquiry.
- Enacting new understanding through real-world connections.
- Using reflection to guide informed decisions.
Include:
- Learners contribute a balanced perspective when participating in a learning community by:
- Adopting a discerning stance toward points of view and opinions expressed in information resources and learning products.
- Describing their understanding of cultural relevance and placement within the global learning community.
- Learners adjust their awareness of the global learning community by
- Evaluating a variety of perspectives during learning activities.
- Learners exhibit empathy with and tolerance for divers ideas by:
- Contributing to discussions in which multiple viewpoints on a topic are expressed.
- Learners demonstrate empathy and equity in knowledge building within the global learning community by:
- Reflecting on their own place within the global learning community.
Collaborate:
- Learners identify collaborative opportunities by:
- Demonstrating their desire to broaden and deepen understandings.
- Learners participate in personal, social, and intellectual networks by:
- Using a variety of communication tools and resources.
- Establishing connections with other learners to build on their own prior knowledge and create new knowledge.
- Learners work productively with others to solve problems by:
- Involving diverse perspective in their own inquiry processes
- Learners actively participate with others in learning situations by:
- Actively contributing to group discussions.
- Recognizing learning as a social responsibility.
Curate:
- Learners act on an information need by:
- Determining the need to gather information.
- Identifying possible sources of information.
- Making critical choices about information sources to use
- Learners gather information appropriate to the task by:
- Seeking a variety of sources of information.
- Collecting information representing diverse perspectives.
- Systematically questioning and assessing the validity and accuracy of information.
- Organizing information by priority, topic, or other systematic scheme.
- Learners exchange information resources within and beyond their learning community by:
- Accessing and evaluating collaboratively constructed information sites.
- Contributing to collaboratively constructed information sites by ethically using and reproducing others’ work.
- Joining with others to compare and contrast information derived from collaboratively constructed information sites.
- Learners select and organize information for a variety of audiences by:
- Performing ongoing analysis of and reflection on the quality, usefulness, and accuracy of curated resources.
- Integrating and depicting in a conceptual knowledge network their understanding gained from resources.
- Openly communicating curation processes for others to use, interpret, and validate.
Explore:
- Learners engage with the learning community by:
- Expressing curiosity about a topic of personal interest or curricular relevance.
- Co-constructing innovative means of investigation.
- Collaboratively identifying innovative solutions to a challenge or problem.
- Learners develop through experience and reflection by:
- Open-mindedly accepting feedback for positive and constructive growth.
Engage:
- Learners follow ethical and legal guidelines for gathering and using information by:
- Responsibly applying information, technology, and media to learning.
- Understanding the ethical use of information, technology, and media.
- Evaluating information for accuracy, validity, social and cultural context, and appropriateness for need.
- Learners use valid information and reasoned conclusions to make ethical decisions in the creation of knowledge by:
- Ethically using and reproducing other’s work.
- Acknowledging authorship and demonstrating respect for the intellectual property of others.
- Including elements in personal-knowledge products that allow others to credit content appropriately.
- Learners responsibly, ethically, and legally share new information with a global community by:
- Sharing information resources in accordance with modification, reuse, and remix policies.
- Disseminating new knowledge through means appropriate for the intended audience.
- Learners engage with information to extend personal learning by:
- Personalizing their use of information and information technologies.
- Reflecting on the process of ethical generation of knowledge.
- Inspiring others to engage in safe, responsible, ethical, and legal information behaviors.
Information Strategies:
- Students will understand and demonstrate a command of information skills and strategies to locate and effectively use print, non-print resources to solve problems and conduct research.
- Locate and use table of contents and index in nonfiction materials.
- Identify print and non-print characteristics, organizing features (e.g., table of contents, index) and purposes.
- Select appropriate resources from a variety of media formats, understanding that information is stored and accessed in different ways.
- Identify and use print and not-print reference sources (atlases, almanacs, encyclopedias, dictionaries, etc.).
- Use information presented graphically (e.g., pictures, captions, diagrams, or labels).
- Identify keywords for searching for information, with assistance.
Social Emotional Learning
Unit 1
Skills for Learning
- Being Respectful Learners
- Using Self-Talk
- Being Assertive
- Planning to Learn
Unit 2
Empathy
- Identifying Others’ Feelings
- Understanding Perspectives
- Conflicting Feelings
- Accepting Differences
- Showing Compassion
- Making Friends
Unit 3
Emotion Management
- Introducing Emotion Management
- Managing Test Anxiety
- Handling Accusations
- Managing Disappointment
- Managing Anger
- Managing Hurt Feelings
Unit 4
Problem Solving
- Solving Problems, Part 1
- Solving Problems, Part 2
- Solving Classroom Problems
- Solving Peer-Exclusion Problems
- Dealing with Negative Peer Pressure
- Reviewing Second Step Skills