Third Grade

For students at the Atrium, the third grade year is one of significant transition. With the days of “choice” time in the second grade in the rear view mirror, third graders face a more rigorous set of academic challenges and the responsibilities of daily homework. They are increasingly conscious of growing gender differences and how they appear to others, complicating the process of learning to work better in small and large groups. We challenge third graders to realize that they can break away from their core group of friends and successfully collaborate on projects, producing superlative work.

Cooperation, compromise, and caring carry the day, as we use role playing, discussions, and games to build bonds with each other and reinforce acceptance of all people. As we emphasize awareness of how actions affect others, students take responsibility of their actions.

Theme

We focus on learning about North, Central, and South America using the following questions as guides: Why, when, and how did different people come to the Americas? How are people who live in the Americas similar? Different? Connected? How do the natural resources of different areas in the Americas influence people's lives? What does it mean to be “American?” How can we understand and get to know one another more deeply? Throughout the year we will make important connections that help children feel not only a sense of belonging to their own families and communities, but also a sense of being responsible “citizens of the world.” This includes:

Learning basic world geography: identifying the differences between continents, countries, states, regions, cities, and towns with a study focus on landforms and waterways.
Understanding the New England region and its rich history and cultural diversity, within the context of North America.
Studying the countries, peoples, and cultures of Central and South America culminates in a biannual school-wide cultural event organized by the third and fourth graders called El Mercado, in which every classroom creates and sells beautiful crafts (some inspired by the artistic traditions of the countries we are studying) and raise money for a given cause or organization. The 2007 proceeds went to Matenwa Community Learning Center in Haiti.

Science

Third graders learn about the earth’s structure, plant life, and how electricity works. Using readings, discussion, and hands-on experiments, the class explores each topic, and its relationship to other areas of curriculum. Studying the earth includes making models of our planet’s layers and investigating landforms, such as volcanoes and mountains.

We examine the life cycle of plants by observing our own plants, from the germination of seeds to the harvesting of new seeds, and monitoring the influence of light, heat, water, and other factors with a focus on how the environment affects plant life and other natural resources in the larger world. During the electricity unit students make their own circuits, exploring insulators and conductors, and ultimately produce their own electrifying creations. This investigation fosters discussions about how technology has changed throughout history and the roles technology plays in our current society.

Reading/Writing

In class, children read for pleasure, for information, and to build skills. Through both all-class workshops and independent reading sessions, teachers help children focus on becoming closer readers, comprehension, vocabulary, spelling and grammar, and good writing techniques.

During independent reading, children find a cozy spot with a good book. This allows the teachers to circulate and identify individual needs. Through this one-on-one discussion and practice, students gain stronger understanding of both reading and writing techniques.

Throughout the year children also form book groups to discuss storylines, characters, and themes of curriculum related stories and novels and then relate what they learn to their writing. As an example, while studying Native Americans, students read and listened to tales, practiced identifying story elements and summarizing, and then wrote their own tales in a similar format.

Writing is practiced everyday in many forms. In their writing journals, students compose personal and poetic reflections which is the basis of their individual spelling lists. Science and math journals are used to document and organize work and to record observations. In Theme, journals are used to record information to create reports on theme-related projects.

Math

Problem solving, reasoning skills, and oral and written communication are practiced daily. Teachers emphasize making connections between mathematical learning and real life experiences, and integrate numbers and logic into various other aspects of the curriculum. Topics include:

Counting money and making change
Multiplication and division of one digit by two digit numbers
Geometry, including perimeter and area
The number system through one million
Understanding fractions
Creating surveys and developing statistics
Making and interpreting graphs