Third Grade
Teachers: Ms. Castillo & MRs. Lederer
Newsletter
Welcome to Third Grade! Students continue to grow and learn at St. Mary’s third grade academically and socially. The students become more independent thinkers, readers and writers. Best of all, Catholic education nurtures a sense of community by focusing on assisting students to recognize their own personal gifts and setting an example of character to others. School begins at 7:45 with prayers in Cargill Hall.
The following is a few key points of what is accomplished during third grade at St. Mary Catholic School:
Language Arts
- In K-2nd grade, they “learn to read”, and now they “read to learn”. We focus on applying comprehension skills in all subject areas, and explore a greater range of books with longer texts.
- AR (Accelerator Reader program) goals are required, along with ability grouped book clubs.
- Writing and grammar are taught hand-in-hand to practice their letter-writing, summaries, reports and gratitude journal writing.
- Students continue to practice and master cursive writing. By the second semester, students will be writing all assignments in complete cursive.
- Vocabulary words are their weekly spelling words, and are studied for two weeks to allow for in-depth study. Index cards are made starting with unit one in August during the school day. Each car
d contains synonyms, antonyms, definition, an illustration, and the word used in a sentence.
Math
- In math, they will be learning and memorizing their multiplication and division facts. Memorization skills will be applied to word problems that challenge students to start thinking “off the paper” and use critical thimking.
- Our math curriculum is number theory and systems, algebraic thinking, geometry, measurement, and data analysis and probability.
Science
- Students work in groups and as a class to conduct experiments using the scientific method.
- Discussions include famous scientists, life science, earth & space science and physical science.
Social Studies
- Social Studies emphasizes and teaches students about different communities, including details about citizenship & leaders.
- Geography is taught using maps to get a deeper understanding of how geography affects a community.
Religion
- Third graders learn about the elements of the Catholic faith such as the Trinity, the Spiritual & Corporal Works of Mercy, forms of prayer, and the 10 Commandments.
- We attend weekly Mass. We rotate being altar servers and singing in the choir with other grade levels.
- Service projects include Third Grade Kindness Club (serve others in the building with acts of kindness) and two field trips to a nearby nursing facility. We also participate with school wide service projects.
Technology
- Students attend computer lab once a week and use computers in the classroom daily to learn keyboarding skills, save files, and work with more than one software application.
- Research skills are taught with a few teacher-approved websites to learn about note taking skills while learning about saints and other topics.
Social Skills and Homework
- Homework packets are sent home weekly during the first semester. During the last semester, third graders copy daily homework assignments off the board. Homework is about 30-45 minutes.
- Recess is daily or indoor recess on bad weather days. Brain breaks are given frequently during the day.
- Learning stations for each subject allows for a fun way to review and practice what is being taught.
- Student’s receive a weekly folder with up-to-date graded papers to monitor progress, along with a weekly newsletter explaining upcoming skills. Grades may be accessed by parents through Family Portal.
Spanish
- Students attend Spanish classes. They will learn vocabulary, translations, and how to conjugate certain verbs.
