Foundations for Learning in Third Grade

Reading in Third Grade - Literacy is key to establishing the foundation of all learning as students are able to integrate their skills across reading, writing, spelling, listening, speaking, and constructing meaning from text:

1. Develop the skills and strategies that are essential to reading.

• use letter/sound association (phonics)
• use reading strategies to decode words and meaning
• read orally with fluency and expression in a range of 100-120 word per minute

2. Comprehending Text

• infer word meaning and apply vocabulary strategies from base words, prefixes, and suffixes
• summarize major points from fiction and nonfiction texts
• identify main characters, setting, and events in a story
• make predictions, compare and contrast
• identify cause and effect, fact and opinion
• summarize information from charts, tables, and graphs
• gather and put together information from a variety of sources
• use context clues to determine word meaning

3. Reads different materials for a variety of purposes.

• identify the author’s point of view
• read to gain information (textbooks, encyclopedias, other reference materials)
• read and follow directions
• read voluntarily for interest and own purpose

4. Becomes confident as a reader.

• connect reading to specific purposes (set goals)
• connect reading to real-life (biographies,completing forms)
• read longer selections and books independently

PARENTS AS PARTNERS IN READING

• Read every day from a variety of sources.
• Set aside time when everybody reads.
• Provide magazines and books in the home.
• Play board games that involve reading: Scrabble, Boggle, Clue, Trivial Pursuit Jr., Monopoly, or Yahtzee.
• While reading to your child, stop and ask questions like: "What do you think will happen next?" and "Why do you think the author put that in the story?"
• Cook together and have your child read the instructions when following a recipe.
• Limit television and video games. 
   

Mathematics in Third Grade - WASHINGTON STATE ESSENTIAL LEARNINGS IN MATHEMATICS as approved by the Washington State Commission on Student Learning.

The student will:

• understand and apply the concepts and procedures of mathematics.
• use mathematics to define and solve problems.
• communicate knowledge and understanding in both everyday and mathematical language.
• understand how mathematical ideas connect to the other subject areas and real-like situations.

As the third grade students in the Eatonville School District work toward achieving the essential learnings in math they will have an opportunity to:

• Add and subtract three digit numbers with regrouping
  Know multiplication and division facts through 9’s
• Work with fractions, decimals, and estimation
• Understand units of measure for length, weight, money, temperature, and time
• Identify angles, polygons, segments, points, lines of symmetry, and patterns
• Collect information, make and interpret graphs
• Solve equations at the symbolic level
• Solve problems using problem solving strategies
• Compare and contrast, predict results and draw conclusions
• Connect math to everyday life

Third grade students will participate in the math and reading WASL and the District Writing Assessment. Encourage your child to "Show They Know"!

PARENTS AS PARTNERS IN MATHEMATICS

• Use flash cards or games for continued practice of basic facts (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division).
• Practice making change.
• Measure objects around the house (length, weight, and volume).
• Keep track of the weather on a thermometer.
• Look for shapes and their purposes in the environment.
• Find graphs in magazines or the newspaper and interpret the information with your child.
• Create word problems.
• Connect math skills to areas of family life.

Writing in Third Grade - CURSIVE: During the third grade students complete most of their work in cursive. The Eatonville School District uses the D’Nelian style of cursive.

The "writing process" continues in third grade as students use parts of the six-trait writing system taught in the Eatonville School District. Not every step of the process will be used with each writing activity but you may see: Pre-writing activities such as reading books, drawing pictures, making lists of ideas, or using graphic organizers such as webs, creating a rough draft in order to organize their ideas, revising and editing their writing in order to improve their work, and presenting or publishing their completed work.

The SIX-TRAITS:

1. Ideas - the "heart" of the message, the content of the piece, the main theme, together with all the details that enrich and develop that theme.
2. Organization - the internal structure of the piece of writing. The student focuses on one idea in the writing.
3. Voice - the writer coming through the words, the sense of the real person speaking to us about the topic.
4. Word Choice - the use of rich, colorful, precise language. The vocabulary of the message creates, enlightens, persuades, clarifies, or paints pictures in the reader’s mind.
5. Sentence Fluency - the rhythm and flow of the language and the sound of word patterns as they are read aloud.
6. Conventions - those items we look for in editing: spelling, grammar and usage, paragraphs, use of capitals, and punctuation.

Writing Opportunities for Third Graders:

• to use the various phases of six trait writing and tell which phase they are using
• to develop their own topics in writing
• to write for a variety of purposes and share the writing with others
• to begin to revise and edit to improve their writing
• students begin with keyboarding skills and regularly use technology skills

 PARENTS AS PARTNERS IN WRITING

• Be your child’s best audience - an enthusiastic listener.
• Encourage your child’s writing by writing notes, letters, invitations, and thank-yous.
• Provide writing materials of all kinds - colors, textures, and sizes.
• As your child writes, focus on their ideas and content.
• When they have all the ideas together and organized, then work on editing.
• Identify reasons to write - to inform (family letter), to persuade, or to entertain (create a play or write a poem).
• Provide your child with a dictionary and a thesaurus (book of synonyms).