Grade 3

For students at Atrium, Grade 3 is an important year of transition and growth. Third graders face a more rigorous set of academic challenges and the responsibilities of more independent work. They are increasingly conscious of growing differences and how they appear to others, making the process of learning to work together within a community ever more important. Cooperation, compromise, and caring are central to day, as we use role-playing, discussions, and games to build bonds with each other and reinforce acceptance of all people. We challenge third graders to realize that they can break away from their core group of friends and successfully collaborate with others on projects to produce excellent work. As we emphasize awareness of how actions affect others, students learn to take responsibility for their actions and learn from the choices that they make.

Third Grade Theme: "What Is a Community?"

Thematic study is a way of focusing all aspects of children’s education at Atrium into a central idea. This interdisciplinary focus allows all kinds of learners to develop skills and experience success in their academic lives. Throughout the year, students have opportunities to share their work with their community and make connections between their learning and the world around them.

In Grade 3, the Trailblazers explore the theme of community.  "What is a community?" is the question that comes up, sooner or later, in every book that we read, every game we play in PE, every work of art we create, and every song we sing. We approach the question through the lenses of our classroom community, our school community, and the larger communities that make up our world. As we begin the year, lessons and discussions focus on the challenges and the skills needed to work together. Students learn about growth mindset and the importance of learning from mistakes. We continue to build off of second grade’s study of “What Is a Human Being?” to explore the similarities, differences, and types of connections among people in a community. We look at the many different roles in a community, how our strengths and interests – as well as our challenges – can inform the roles we choose, and how each role is important in creating a safe, peaceful, and functioning community. Through this work, we instill a sense of respect and appreciation for the diversity among us.

We explore these questions through a variety of hands-on, cooperative learning projects both in the classroom as well as outside of the school. In these projects, students are asked to look through the lens of what makes a community successful to identify factors that add positively to or detract from the success of a communal venture. Core projects in Grade 3 include the Name Story Project, the States Project, and the Upstander Project or Activists Project (alternating years).

In addition, third grade students have multiple opportunities to be community leaders in their own right, which helps children see ways to create positive change in the world around them. 

Classroom Structure

Literacy

Writing is structured as a Writers’ Workshop, where students learn about a variety of writing styles and experiment with each of them. On a two-year rotation, our writing units include: fairy tales, “Picturing Writing” (an art-based descriptive writing unit), research writing, narrative writing, persuasive writing, and poetry. Periods begin with a writing strategy mini-lesson for students to incorporate into their independent writing. We teach students to work through the entire writing process, from brainstorming to drafting, to revision and editing, and finally, publishing a final draft. Teachers circulate and conference with students one-on-one and in small groups to provide individualized instruction and support. These conferences inform subsequent mini-lessons and offer opportunities to assess each child's creative and mechanical writing skills. Peer support is also integral to the writing process, as students learn to help one another and give positive, constructive feedback. Grade-level-specific sets of expectations inform our work with all of the third grade writers.

Reading instruction begins with the entire class gathered in the meeting area for a mini-lesson. During each mini-lesson we explicitly teach word solving and reading comprehension strategies. We discuss how to choose books we will enjoy; genres, series, and authors; what kinds of writing make us want to keep reading; how to give a book a good chance; and how to know when it is time to put a book down and choose another. We study literary fiction, various kinds of non-fiction, and poetry, nurturing and celebrating connection to reading.

All of our lessons are designed to teach children to be “good readers.” Good readers read for meaning, and use a wide variety of strategies to solve words. They learn to tell which books are “just right” for them. They reread sections that don’t make sense in the first reading and ask for help as they need it so that they always understand what is going on. After the day’s mini-lesson, the children go to their special reading spots, where they read independently from books that they have chosen and keep in their classroom book bins. This quiet stretch of time to read is something many children look forward to, and is a crucial part of becoming a strong, independent reader. During this time we confer with individual students and keep track of their progress, making sure that they have “just right” books that hold their interest and teaching reading strategies.

Third graders are also part of reading groups throughout the year. Reading groups are small groups that meet to read the same book together. These groups are made up of children who are at similar reading levels or who have in common the need to learn a particular strategy. Much of the sharing and discussion in these groups mirrors that of adult book groups, and we purposefully choose books that we think each group will find engaging.

During Word Work, the class engages in becoming word solvers and learning how the English language works. Word Work is a time of direct instruction as well as practice games. As much as possible, we try to make Word Work interactive and fun. As in other subject areas, our lessons and expectations are informed by specific grade level benchmarks, as well as by our knowledge of each child and where he or she needs extra practice or challenge. 

Mathematics

Math is taught in a workshop model similar to those used for reading and writing. We use the Investigations math curriculum developed by Technical Education Research Center (TERC). Children come together in their math meeting area to discuss a mathematical concept and then work individually or in small groups on an activity or problem that is appropriate for their level of understanding. Sometimes this means that children work on the same problem and extend it according to their abilities. Other times, there are two or three choices of math problems that range in level of difficulty. Much of our math work is done in a hands-on way, with materials available for use throughout math times. The group comes back together toward the end of the math hour to share ideas and strategies and to summarize the work done that day.

Science

We begin each year by learning about the scientific process, honing students’ abilities to make observations, ask scientific questions, and conduct experiments. We teach science in a two-year cycle, and students work in mixed-grade groups. Science instruction is grounded in inquiry and exploration, strengthening students’ growth mindset and helping them think like scientists. During Year A, our science studies begin with a life science focus on the human body, and students investigate specific structures and functions of the human body. Students create models as they explore how the brain responds to environmental stimuli and how our eyes interact with light to shape our vision. Our second human body unit about skin and identity explores how skin protects the body and the evolutionary adaptations in human skin across different climate zones. In the second term, we further explore our bodies through forces and motion, and learn about magnetic forces through a series of lab explorations. In our final unit, students develop an understanding of how animals and their environments change through time. Students learn that fossils offer a window into prehistoric animals and habitats. 

During Year B, we study four units within the fields of earth and life science. In the first term, students study and analyze weather data, practicing how to use information to predict future patterns. They investigate the cause-and-effect relationship between heated liquid water and the evaporation of water vapor that forms clouds. In our engineering unit, students examine landforms and issues of erosion, using engineering and design skills to develop possible solutions. In the second term, we are immersed in the study of rocks, exploring how scientists classify rocks and minerals by different properties. Why are particular rocks used for certain buildings and construction purposes? We end the year by exploring how a habitat affects an organism's adaptations for survival, comparing and contrasting how different animals have adapted to their environments.

Homework

Homework folders are sent home with third graders every Monday to be brought back on Friday. Students have four nights to practice spelling, fill out their reading logs, and complete any additional homework. 

Third grade requirements include weekly spelling sheets, memorization of spelling words, thirty minutes of reading twice a week, a journal entry, and a math page. Extra credit is offered for students who enjoy the challenge of more independent work, and children are able to decide if they want to do the extra credit on a week-by-week basis.