Southwestern Third Grade is a year of transition from lower to upper elementary. Students use previously learned skills to build on the 3rd grade concepts. For example, one of the highlights of 3rd grade is learning cursive penmanship. The students are so excited about it that they feel they can accomplish the task in one day, but soon find out that it takes a lot of patience and practice to develop good penmanship. Reading the cursive writing is as challenging as forming the letters. Students are always excited when they can read and write cursive handwriting! They feel so grown up!

 

MATH Lower elementary math skills are the building blocks for 3rd grade concepts include graphing, reading and writing various numbers with up to 6 digits, addition and subtraction of whole numbers ( including subtracting across 0’s and regrouping). Students enthusiastically jump into multiplication and division! Making their own flash cards reinforces their basic facts. The students find that review and practice are the best helpers.

 

READING Our reading stories are separated into six different, yet interesting themes. Some of these topics include celebrating family traditions, animal habitats, and childhood adventures. The students enjoy learning reading strategies from the Storylords program. This educational television program uses 12 lessons and make-believe characters to introduce each week’s reading strategy.

 

SOCIAL STUDIES & SCIENCE Social studies and science are taught with a hands-on approach. Students love working with the maps and doing the science experiments.

 

HOMEWORK The third graders are ready to develop their responsibility skills. Therefore, they are expected to write spelling sentences each week. Other homework assignments are given periodically throughout the year to help develop their ability to be responsible.

 

Overall, third grade is a fun-filled year of learning and growing in all ways!