3rd Grade

Summary of Module 8: Imagine! Invent!

 

Reading: Over the next three weeks, our class will build their knowledge about inventors and inventions, with a focus on the nonfiction genre. We will read texts about what it takes to make a successful invention. Children will also write an opinion essay telling which inventor in this module made the greatest contribution, and why.

Home Connections: 

Discuss the Topic: Set aside time daily for your child to share with you what he or she is learning. Use these ideas to help build your child’s knowledge about the topic: 

• Talk about the ideas your child has added to the Knowledge Map each week. 
• Ask about the texts your child is reading, and what he or she has learned from them
• Share with your child your own questions about the topic, and work together to find the answers.

Explore the Genre: The genre focus in this module is nonfiction. Discuss with your child the characteristics of this genre. Ask your child to read to you each day and make time to read together. Look for texts that: 

• Spark your child’s curiosity. 
• Tie to the module topic. 
• Provide interesting facts and details about inventors and inventions. 
• Reveal the true successes—and failures—behind an invention.

Build Vocabulary: Use these ideas to help your child build a rich vocabulary. 

• The Big Idea: Reinforce the topic words- invention, brilliant, productive, and original in everyday conversations with your child. Use prompts like these: When are you most productive, and why? Describe a brilliant idea. 
• What Does It Mean? Have your child keep a growing list of the Critical Vocabulary words. Quiz each other on their meanings. 

Word Hunt: Look for words with the roots graph, vis, and mem, the suffix –logy, and the prefix ex– in books, magazines, online texts, and environmental print.

 

Summary of Module 9: From Farm to Table

Reading: Over the next three weeks, our class will build their knowledge about food sources, with a focus on the informational text genre. We will read texts and view videos about how foods reach our tables. Children will also write an expository essay that tells how food gets from the farm to the table.

Home Connections: 

Discuss the Topic: Set aside time daily for your child to share with you what he or she is learning. Use these ideas to help build your child’s knowledge about the topic: 

• Talk about the ideas your child has added to the Knowledge Map each week. 
• Ask about the texts your child is reading, and what he or she has learned from them.
• Share with your child your own questions about the topic, and work together to find the answers.

Explore the Genre: The genre focus in this module is informational text. Discuss with your child the characteristics of this genre. Ask your child to read to you each day and make time to read together. Look for texts that: 

• Spark your child’s curiosity. 
• Tie to the module topic. 
• Provide interesting facts and details about where different types of food come from.
• Have visuals and graphic features that support and extend ideas presented in the text.

Build Vocabulary: Use these ideas to help your child build a rich vocabulary. 

• The Big Idea: Reinforce the topic words agriculture, reap, nutrition, and tilling in everyday conversations. Use prompts like these: How does good nutrition help you? What can we reap from a garden? 
• What Does It Mean? Have your child keep a growing list of the Critical Vocabulary words. Quiz each other on their meanings. 

Word Hunt: Look for words with the prefixes in–, re–, the suffixes – ful, –ness, –able, and –ion, and the root mem in books, magazines, online texts, and environmental print

 

Writing:  Literary Paragraphs

Throughout this unit students will be working with different forms of literature to write literary paragraphs that focus on particular themes found in the texts we are reading. We will create literary paragraphs after reading multiple passages/articles that explain a specific theme. The students will pull evidence from these texts in order to prove the theme to be true.

We will continue to work on organization, paragraph structure, introductions, conclusions, partner sentences, spelling, and punctuation during the unit.

Theme: A literary theme is the lesson, moral, or central message/idea an author is trying to teach the reader.  The theme of a story can be conveyed using characters, setting, dialogue, plot, or a combination of all of these elements. These themes are broad and can be taken to other literary works and our own lives. 

Common Theme Examples:

• Compassion
• Courage
• Friendship
• Honesty
• Loyalty
• Perseverance
• Importance of family
• Benefits of hard work

Home Connection:   The books students read, songs they listen to, and many tv shows or movies that they watch have themes or lessons we can learn.  Ask your child what the message of the book/song/show/movie was and how they know using evidence to prove their thinking. 

 

Math         Units of Measure

      This module focuses on extending students’ understanding of time and developing an understanding of liquid volume (capacity) and mass.  

       Students learn to tell time on an analog clock to the nearest minute.  Students learn to first consider the hour hand, and then the minute hand.  To find the number of minutes, they count by fives from one number to the next, and then count by ones from one mark to the next.  Students will use counting up as a strategy to find elapsed time in hours and minutes.  Intervals can progress through noon or midnight.  Students will use a number line to also show elapsed time.  Students will solve word problems involving addition and subtraction of time intervals using bar diagrams and number lines. 

       Students choose appropriate units and tools to estimate and measure liquid volume (capacity).  Students should have experience pouring liquids between familiar containers and standard unit containers.  These comparisons help students develop their own benchmarks for the basic units.  Students apply their understanding of number lines in reading the scale on the side of a beaker.  

       Students choose appropriate units and tools to estimate and measure mass.  Students should have experience using a pan balance to compare the masses of familiar objects to standard unit masses.  

       Students will add, subtract, multiply, and divide to solve one-step problems involving liquid volume or mass.  Measures are given in the same units within each problem, so that students do not need to convert units.  

Home Connection: 

During this unit you can help your child understand Units of Measure by 

→ Ask your child to tell you what time it is using an analog clock. Repeat throughout the day for various events, such as the time for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
→ Ask your child what time it will be in 30 minutes, 45 minutes, or 60 minutes from a given time.  For example, you may tell your child that the family needs to be at the park 45 minutes from the given time. Then ask your child to tell you the time it will be.
→ Have your child practice using measuring tools such as measuring cups to find how much liquid there is

Materials: Clock faces, colored pencils, open number lines, 1-liter bottles, large bowls, assorted containers, marked 1-liter beakers, pan balance, gram and kilogram weights, Exemplars Problem Solving Process, Math Word BankMaterials: notebook, enVision Volume 1 book, Math Tools that include: cubes, unit tiles, array boards, multiplication skip counting chart,

Science: In Chapter 3, students investigate the question Why were snails with yellow shells more likely to survive in their environment 10 years ago? Students examine and discuss examples of environmental changes and use a model to collect data that reveals how an environmental change can affect which traits are adaptive in a population. Through discussion of case studies they read about, students continue to investigate this idea about how different traits might be adaptive before and after each environmental change. Finally, students revisit the digital modeling tool to model their ideas about which traits are adaptive before and after an environmental change. At the end of the chapter, students write a scientific explanations that answer the Chapter 3 Question of why were snails with yellow shells more likely to survive in their environment 10 years ago. 

Physical Education Curriculum: 

In Physical Education, Class 302 will be focusing on the skills and drills of team sports. We will continue to reinforce the importance of teamwork, cooperation and patience. We have been working on the concept of “everyone has a voice and it deserves to be heard.” Another focus is the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Some of our activities will include Basketball, March Madness, Soccer, Kickball, Capture the Flag and several team building activities. We are striving to master the fact that obstacles can be solved more effectively if everyone can share their ideas and thoughts in order to be successful.  In addition, we will be working together to “invent” a new game. The students will be creating the rules of the game while determining what equipment they will need, space, objective, etc.

Art Curriculum:

Class 301

We are excited to highlight the creativity of our 3rd graders during art class as they explore multimedia landscapes inspired by the vibrant style of renowned female artist Etel Adnan in honor of Women’s History Month. Class 301 has been experimenting with various materials, combining paint, paper, and black marker to create dynamic compositions that reflect their unique perspectives of a landscape. By embracing both warm/cool colors and abstract forms reminiscent of Adnan's work, these young artists are not only developing their artistic skills but also learning to express their thoughts and feelings through visual storytelling. 

 

SPARK New Victory Theater:

Students in third grade are receiving fifteen workshops in theater with the teaching artists from New Victory Theater. The students will be studying puppetry and connecting their study to their own identity to tie to their previous HMH unit on Identity. The students attended a performance of “Little Murmur” at New Victory Theater in New York City on January 15th. 

 

Dancing Classrooms:

We are so excited to have received grant funding for our students to learn with teaching artists from Dancing Classrooms! Students will be learning about ballroom dances from around the world, such as waltz, tango and merengue. They will receive sixteen dance workshops this school year

Student Voice 

Check out some of our responses to reading from Module 7

Farmer Will Allen