Grade 3
Course Outline
ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS
FM Virtual University® uses the Balanced Literacy approach to best address the needs of all students. This approach involves mini lessons about key reading skills, frequent and in-depth discussions, exposure to high-quality literature and nonfiction texts, and the reading of books at each student\’s own level. FM Virtual University® classrooms also use the handwriting without Tears Curriculum to teach cursive writing skills. Reading – During the year, students in the third grade will be working on:- Getting to know the characters in stories by reading deeply to learn about a character\’s thought, words, or actions.
- Identifying elements of fiction (characters, setting, plot, problem, solution) to help make predictions and follow the story.
- Using specific evidence from a text to develop ideas and opinions about characters.
- Using multiple strategies such as previewing, asking questions, and visualizing to carefully read and comprehend different types of text (fiction, nonfiction, and poetry)
- Finding the main idea of a text and identifying the supporting details
- Using new topic-specific vocabulary as they discuss and write about their nonfiction reading.
- Noticing how poets play with words and sounds to enrich the meaning of the poem.
- Determining why an author writes and what message s/he wants to communicate.
- Reading biographies and recognizing how the time, place, and events of a person\’s life affect the choices s/he makes.
- Recognizing that folktales (fairy tales, fables, myths, legends) are stories that can teach a lesson, explain a natural phenomenon, or explain the greatness of a legendary character.
- Engaging in discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) on topics and texts, building on others\’ ideas, and explaining their own ideas clearly
- Reading stories and poems aloud fluently, without pausing to figure out what each word means.
- Organizing ideas about a topic by writing three connected paragraphs
- Using linking words to connect ideas (therefore, since, for example, also, another, yet, nor)
- Using a variety of leads to pull in the reader (for example, action, dialogue, questions)
- Using a variety of closings to tie up a piece (for example, what I learned, why it\’s important)
- Choosing alternative words for said in dialogue (for example, responded, exclaimed, muttered)
- Using examples and details that are accurate and make writing and thinking clear.
- Using vivid verbs to make writing interesting to the reader (for example, sprinted instead of ran; wandered instead of went)
- Using quotation marks and commas when writing dialogue
- Using apostrophes in contractions and possessives
- Correctly spelling words for third-grade level using resources if needed.
- Correctly using \”I\” and \”me\”
- Keeping the same tense (present, past, or future) throughout the piece
MATHEMATIC
During the year, students in the third grade will be working on:- Solving word problems using addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division
- Beginning to multiply numbers with more than one digit (e.g., multiplying 9 x 80)
- Memorizing multiplication facts up to 10 × 10
- Solving division problems using knowledge of multiplication (e.g., if 9 x 5 = 45, then 45 ÷ 5 = 9)
- Rounding numbers to the nearest 10 to 100
- Understanding fractions and relating them to the familiar systems of whole numbers (e.g., recognizing that 3/1 and 3 are the same number)
- Comparing fractions and recognizing equivalent fractions (1/2 = 4/8)
- Measuring and estimating lengths, weights, and liquid volumes, and solving word problems involving these qualities·
- Reasoning about shapes (e.g., all squares are rectangles but not all rectangles are squares)
- Telling time to the nearest minute
- Solving problems using information in bar graphs
- Finding areas of shapes, and relating area to multiplication (e.g., why is the number of square feet for a 9-foot by 7-foot room given by the product 9 x 7?)
SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND ENGINEERING
During the year, students in the third grade will be learning about:- How multiple forces act on an object and some of these are seen and unseen (for example, friction)
- That forces can be balanced (doesn’t change the motion of an object) or unbalanced (changes the motion of an object)
- That magnetic forces between two magnets change depending on distance and positioning.
- That scientists use fossils to learn about life and environments that existed long ago.
- How in certain environments some organisms can survive well, less well, or not at all.
- That environmental changes can affect the ability of organisms to survive or reproduce.
- How the variations in characteristics among individuals within the same species can provide advantages in survival.
- That plants and animals have traits inherited from parents and that variation of these traits exist in a group of similar organisms.
- That different types of organisms have unique and diverse life cycles.
- That the climate of different regions of the world vary and that typical weather conditions over a year vary by region
- That we can create solutions that reduce the damage caused by weather
SOCIAL STUDIES
During the year, students in the third grade will be learning about:- The Pilgrims, Puritans, and Wampanoag
- Massachusetts\’ events leading to the America Revolution-Boston Massacre, Boston Tea Party, Battle of Lexington and Concord, Battle of Bunker Hill
- Biographies of Massachusetts\’ leaders
- FM Virtual University® history
- Geography – cardinal directions, hemispheres, continents, and oceans
- The physical geography of New England and Massachusetts