Third Grade Curriculum Overview

In third grade English Language Arts your child will…

• This year, our third grade students will build literacy and language skills by participating in ten cross-disciplinary units of study in our Benchmark Advance Program. Each three-week unit will focus on one topic, and the topics will range from economics to earth science, history and culture to themes in literature, and more. As students read poems, stories, plays, and informational articles, they will strengthen their reading and writing skills. They’ll also participate in meaningful collaborative conversations, and they’ll make connections to other content areas

 

• Students will develop their writing skills in writing workshop with our resource School-Wide Writing Fundamentals. This will be a time when students take part in a writing lesson and, most importantly, write independently. Your child’s teacher will provide explicit instruction on the various stages of the writing process. At each stage, they will be looking at great models of writing by authors who will serve as mentors. Students will be encouraged to take risks as they develop their own individual writing styles and become part of a writing community that shares ideas and learns from one another.

 

How can I support my child at home?

Set aside twenty minutes each day in a comfortable reading space for reading together. During this 20 minutes, read aloud to your child and encourage them to read to you. By reading aloud with your child every day, you can model fluency and expression and support the work your child is doing at school. Encourage your child to read independently. 

 

Is there an online platform or app available?

• Yes! In the Clever app on your child’s iPad there is a Benchmark Advance app. In the app, you can explore the texts students will be encountering in the unit.
• The Epic! digital library app is also available on your child’s iPad. Students are able to read and listen to books and audiobooks. 

 

Additional Information about our core resource:

• Benchmark Advance: Parent Welcome Letter 

In third grade math, your child will:

• Use addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division to solve story problems
• Solve multiplication and division facts accurately and efficiently
• Multiply 1-digit numbers by multiples of 10, e.g., 3 x 70
• Add and subtract 2- and 3-digit numbers
• Compare, recognize, and generate equivalent fractions and place them on a number line
• Estimate and measure in time, liquid volume, and masses of objects
• Round numbers to the nearest 10 or 100
• Tell time to the minute
• Estimate and measure liquid volume and mass in metric units
• Solve area and perimeter problems
• Identify and construct different kinds of quadrilaterals
• Sort and classify shapes

How can I support my child at home?

• Check out a parent guide for each unit of instruction: Grade 3 Family Support Page

 

• Math at Home is an additional resource by The Math Learning Center that includes thought-provoking, Bridges-aligned math activities and games that can be used at home or at school throughout the year for students from kindergarten through fifth grade.  

 

Is there an online platform or app available?

• Yes! Dreambox is a personalized math program that builds students' confidence and competence.  Learn more about how to support the program at home.

 

Additional Information about our core resource:

• Bridges in Mathematics Overview English / Spanish

 

• Video: Introduction to Bridges in Mathematics
• Video: Grade 3-5 Bridges in Mathematics: Mathematical Models & Strategies

 

District 58 incorporates an inquiry-based approach. Students engage in inquiry through rich discussion, questioning, research using various resources, and summarizing their understanding with a project for an audience. DG58 started inquiry with social studies and embeds it throughout other content areas. Ultimately, District 58 staff light the way for students to engage in a path of exploration and discovery.

 

The gradual release process of inquiry.

 

In third grade Social Studies your child will…

• Explore disciplinary concepts throughout the year within the Communities Near and Far theme.
• Engage individually and collaboratively in inquiry within four disciplinary concepts; civics, economics, history, and geography.
• Throughout each chapter, explore essential and supporting questions through the SAVVAS Quest Connections 
• Gather and evaluate sources
• Develop claims and use evidence
• Communicate conclusions
• Take informed action to demonstrate understanding

 

Additional Information about our core resource:

Savvas immerses students in history through a perspective-rich environment that grows as the student moves through elementary school. Learn more about the Savvas social studies program by clicking this link.

 

What is inquiry?

Simply put, inquiry-based learning is founded on a "big question". In our K-5 social studies resource, the big question is researched through what we call, Quest. Each lesson begins with a big question. Then, reading and activities guide students through investigation to answer the big question. In the end, students complete a quest project to demonstrate learning and understanding.  

The inquiry process, according to C3, includes 4 stages:  

• Developing Questions and planning inquiries
• Applying the disciplines (civics, economics, geography, history)
• Evaluating resources
• Communicating conclusions and taking informed action

To learn more, watch this quick and helpful video.

 

How can I support my child at home?

As parents, it can be hard to see our children struggle. However, by not giving the answer, through "failure" (F-first, A-attempt, I-in, L-learning), children learn and build self-efficacy. 

 

Below are helpful ideas to easily incorporate inquiry into your home.

• Learn along with children through books, TV programs, and learning hobbies, such rock collecting.
• Visit museums, zoos, aquariums, and historical sites with children. The Downers Grove Public Library has museum passes available. Downers Grove also has a rich history. To learn more, visit the Downers Grove Historical Museum.
• Explore quality television programs like PBS, the Discovery Channel, and the History Channel.
• Subscribe children to magazines.

 

1. Bring Inquiry into Your Home

Meet a question with a question. Our first instinct when a child asks a question is to provide an answer. This can prevent a golden opportunity to learn about how to learn. So, next time your child asks you a question (“How do you spell ….?” “What are the types of energy?”), instead of supplying the answer, try responding like this:

Great question! How could you find that out? What resource could you use to discover that? 

 

Be prepared to inquire together. Sometimes, when you meet a question with a question, you get an “I don’t know”. That is an invitation to a great teachable moment! If your child doesn’t know how to find out on their own or what resource to use, you can respond with:

Let’s figure it out together. Maybe we can try this….Let’s see if this resource has the answer…

 

Ask the magic question – “What do you notice?”. No matter what subject – the secret ingredient to inquiry is asking learners to think about what they notice. That one question works every time, and can be followed up with “what else do you notice?”.

You don’t have to be an expert, just be a learner. It is okay to not know. That presents an opportunity to model your own approaches to learning. Confidently to say, “I don’t know”.  Follow it up with, “But now I want to know, so here is how I am going to find out!” or, “Let’s figure this out together!”

 

2. Encourage Reflection

Get them thinking about their thinking. There are two magic questions you can ask your child to help them think deeper – any subject:

 

How do you know?

What makes you say that?

 

3. Support your child’s agency 

Invite their voice. Give space for children to articulate what they like and don’t like about learning. Listen to what they care about and what matters to them and try to understand and find ways to support it.

Respect and support their choices. Be aware of choices you make for your child that they could make themselves. Choices may include when, where, and how they learn. Teach  the decision-making process (What choice are you making for yourself?). Then follow up with a reflection (How did that choice work out for you? How do you know? What will you choose differently next time?).

Emphasize ownership. Sometimes learning can get misrepresented as something done to learners. These phrases build that sense of ownership over their learning:

 

It’s your learning.

You’re in the driver’s seat.

Your learning, your choice. 

*Credit: makinggoodhumans.wordpress.com

In third grade English Language Arts your child will…

•  Environments and Living Things: Students are introduced to the unit’s anchoring phenomenon of paleontologists discovering mammoth fossils across North and Central America. To understand more about these fossils, in this unit, students explore environments and living things. Students examine where organisms live and how living in a group helps some animals to survive. Students analyze how environments change and what happens to organisms in changing environments, including taking a look at what fossils of extinct organisms show about past environments. Acting as Natural History Museum junior paleontologists, can students explain why Columbian Mammoths died off thousands of years ago by using the clues the mammoths’ fossils give about their environment?

 

•  Forces and Motion: Students are introduced to the unit’s anchoring phenomenon of how a carnival swing ride spins slow and fast, and how when the ride spins faster, the riders swing higher. In this unit, students explore forces and motion. They find out what happens when forces are balanced or unbalanced, how to predict patterns of motion, and what magnetic and electric forces do. Students examine the swing ride and other carnival phenomena as they investigate how forces affect the motion of objects in a carnival game. Using their knowledge of forces and motion, can students implement magnets to design a new carnival game?

 

•  Weather and Climate: Students are introduced to the unit’s anchoring phenomenon of how buildings are designed differently to suit the climate in different places. This unit is divided into two parts. In the first part of the unit, students examine what makes weather and how it is predicted, and compare how temperature, wind, rain, and snow are measured. Next, students explore weather and climate in different places and determine how weather and climate are related. In the second part of the unit, students find out about extreme weather, how it affects people, and how people can reduce extreme weather damage. Students use graphs to predict weather conditions during a particular season and review design solutions that reduce the impacts of weather-related hazards. Using their knowledge, how can students design a house that can withstand a snowstorm?

 

•  Life Cycles and Traits: Students are introduced to the unit’s anchoring phenomenon of how two frogs may look the same, but one of them is poisonous. In this unit, students explore the traits of diverse organisms and how those traits are affected by both  inheritance and the environment. This unit is split into two parts: traits and survival of species, and life cycles of plants and animals. First, students take a look at traits to understand inherited traits and how the environment can affect traits. Students also explore the survival abilities of certain species. Next, students examine the life cycles of plants, vertebrates, and invertebrates. Based on what they know about life cycles and traits, what will students report in their findings for an article and infographic for Science Monthly?

District 58 utilizes the Second Step program to support students’ social emotional learning through a holistic approach to building our school communities. Children benefit from social-emotional learning (SEL) at any time, but today it’s especially important to help them develop the skills they need to connect and thrive. Second Step® Elementary is a leading research-based SEL curriculum

 

In third grade Second Step your child will…

•  Practice skills for executive functioning and learning
•  Practice skill for empathy
•  Learn and practice strategies for emotional management and recognizing others’ feelings and perspectives
•  Learn and pracice communication skills and problem-solving strategies for peer interactions

 

How can I support my child at home?

If you are interested in learning more about the Second Step curriculum and approach, please visit their website at SecondStep.org.

Art

In third grade Art your child will…

• Explore various forms of culture and forms of art
• Learn and explore storytelling through art
• Learn to create self-portraits

How can I support my child at home?

To inspire your child, visit museums, art shows, and the Downers Grove Public LIbrary where there is exposure to a variety of artwork. The library offers museums free passes that you can check out. Build inspiration for art, by learning about local and historical artists. As you drive around town, see if you can identify various forms of art, whether sculptural or other modes. Finally, have a variety of art materials available at home, such as clay, playdough, paint, colored pencils, fun paper, and more. Many stores have small and large art kits available to encourage children tap into their creativity.

Is there an online platform or app available?

Seesaw is a resource our art teachers rely on the most. Through Seesaw, we connect with parents and share a window into your child’s creative side. At the beginning of each year, your child’s teacher will send you an invitation to their Seesaw class, which will automatically connect you to their art class. Once there, families can see updates, helpful videos, assignments and more.

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Music

(content coming soon)

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Physical Education (PE)

In third grade physical education my child  will engage in the following activities throughout the school year:

• Introduction to flag football, soccer, and volleyball
• Team building activities
• Learn to improve fitness levels
• Introduction to bowling
• Explore Basketball, Pickleball/Badminton
• Engage in team building exercises
• Introduction to floor hockey, soccer, and volleyball skills
• Introduction to softball and kickball
• Participate in recreational games

 

How can I support my child at home?

• Encourage active play: Encourage your child to be physically active every day. Activities such as running, jumping, climbing and playing outdoor games are great for students this age. 
• Make physical activity a family event. Engage in physical activities as a family. Plan trips to the park, nature trails, or the park distinct where everyone can participate in activities like hiking, booking, swimming, or playing sports together. 
• Limit screen time: Set limits on screen time. Excessive screen time can negatively affect a child’s physical activity levels. Encourage your child to engage in more hands-on activities instead. 
• Create a supportive environment: Create an environment that supports physical activity in your child’s daily routine. Provide your child with access to sport equipment, bikes, and other active equipment.  

 

Is there an online platform or app available?

Shape America. Their website offers resources and ideas for parents to support physical education at home and in the community. Website: https://www.shapeamerica.org/MemberPortal/events/parents.aspx

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Library

In third grade Library your child will…

Build an appreciation of literature through a variety of genres that represent neurodiversity and cultures. In Library, students explore the Illinois State Award books, engage in research, and learn how to navigate the library to access books and information online. The library curriculum follows the Association of Illinois School Library Educators standards to engage students in an exploration of genres and modes of media.

 

How can I support my child at home?

Reading and discussing books with children of any age has the most impact on a child’s motivation and ability to read. You can even read the same book that your child is reading. Visit the Downers Grove Public Library to expose your child to a variety of genres and reading materials and even establish a relationship with the local librarian. The library also has free museum passes. The night before your child’s school checkout, brainstorm books or topics they might explore.

 

Is there an online platform or app available? 

Common Sense Media offers helpful resources, articles, videos and digital citizenship parent tips: https://www.commonsensemedia.org/articles

Visit Destiny to explore books available at your child’s school.