Bible Students memorize one or two Bible
verses a week. The verses are
recited together at school and the children should also recite them with their
parents nightly. Some of the Bible passages that we memorize are: Psalm 1, Luke
2:1-7, Matthew 5:1-12, and Romans 12:1-12. The students are quizzed weekly on memorization skills. We study the lives of Ezra, Nehemiah,
Elijah, Elisha, Esther, David, Daniel and Jesus Christ. We also do an overview of the parables,
the beatitudes and the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Reading Our
goal in third grade reading is to become fluent readers and to comprehend the
material that we are reading. We
have a variety of readers and short novels that we read in order to accomplish
this task. The students have daily
assignments that are read aloud in class. They also have a nightly reading assignment that is assigned
homework. They need to read the
assignment silently and then out loud to an adult. There is an occasional quiz on homework and there are
classroom assignments to check for comprehension. Other activities that expand our students reading abilities
are involvement in Accelerated Reading and the Book It program. We attend library class once a week for
lessons on library skills and to check out books for our reading pleasure.
Math Upon entering third grade, students
need to be proficient with their addition and subtraction facts, telling time,
and solving basic word problems. By the end of the year the students should be able to master the
following math skills: place value
to one-million, regrouping in addition and subtraction, multiplication and
division facts from 0 to 12, roman
numerals from 1 to 1,000 and solving word problems with up to 4 steps. The
students have daily assignments, speed drills and weekly tests to accomplish
these goals.
Language Our goal is to help students become confident in their
writing skills. We do a lot of
sentence, paragraph and short story writing. Language skills that are important in third grade are: identifying nouns, verbs and
adjectives, antonyms, synonyms, and homonyms, and identifying meanings of root
words, suffixes, and prefixes. Third graders also become familiar with the skill of letter writing.
Handwriting Third graders continue the process of learning cursive
handwriting. In second grade they
were introduced to the formation of each letter. In third grade we work at becoming fluent with cursive and
we incorporate it into our daily work.
Spelling Tests are scheduled on Wednesday. They include a list of
spelling words, vocabulary words and sentence writing. A new list is introduced
on Thursdays. Copying the spelling list is assigned homework three nights a
week.
Science Third graders explore the wonders
of God’s world. We study how
wonderfully God made plants, animals, the weather and us. We compare the differences of an ocean
and a pond. During our study of
animals the students create a project notebook by collecting pictures of
vertebrates (mammals, fish, amphibians, retiles, and birds) and
invertebrates.
History Third graders learn the location of the seven continents, four oceans,
and the fifty states. They learn
about their American heritage by studying the character qualities and important
events in the lives of 21 great people who shaped America’s history. Some of these great people are: Christopher Columbus, Benjamin
Franklin, Daniel Boone, Noah Webster, Clara Barton, Booker T. Washington, and
Billy Sunday.
Health Students learn about their bones and muscles and how exercise keeps us
healthy. They also study the
digestive system, nutrients and how to have a balanced diet by following the
food pyramid. Third graders also
learn about the importance of good hygiene and simple first aid procedures.
Tests Studying for a test is a concept that is further introduced to third
graders. Students are used to
tests in Math, Spelling and Phonics/Language. In the third grade we add History, Science and Health. Students are given sections of the unit
to study about 5 days before the test. The instructor helps them to find the best ways to study for these
tests. We discuss how to look for
important words and definitions and also the benefit of studying the chapters
in small sections rather than everything in one evening.
Physical Education
Music
