Curriculum Night 2017

Mrs. Margraves and Mrs. McNamee

MORNING DROP-OFF: Students are not allowed to exit their cars until 7:25. Please do not drop-off unattended students any earlier. Students are sent to their classrooms at 7:40 and marked tardy after 7:50. If your student is coming into school after 7:50, they must be taken to the office with a parent.

The following is an outline of the third grade curriculum which followsthe standards from the Archdiocese of Detroit:

HANDWRITING: Our students will be practicing handwriting throughout the week. Weexpect to see their best handwriting (manuscript or cursive) in all subjects and on homework. We will begin each day with a page or two from their D’Nealian Handwriting Workbook by Scott Foresman. They will begin with manuscript and then cursive.

RELIGION: We will be using the Christ Our Life series. The focus for third grade is “We Believe” – which is all about our Catholic Faith. Grades for Religion will come from projects, chapter quizzes, and unit tests. We will use a hands-on approach to learning about our faith with our beautiful Atrium located at the bottom of our building.

As a Catholic school in the Archdiocese of Detroit, we will be creating a faith portfolio for your students this year. This portfolio will help you student study their faith and grow closer to God. Each grade (K-8) will be starting their portfolios and adding to it throughout their Catholic school education. As this is a new adventure, please feel free to ask any questions that you may have.

Additionally, school Mass is on Tuesday at 8:15 and all parents are welcome to celebrate Mass with us. For safety, students should not be walking to the restroom without an adult (teacher or parent).

MATH:

The students will be using the Progress in Mathematics program. This program is content focused and builds a deep understanding of key math skills.This program uses a consistent instructional approach to help learners gain confidence and master skills. Students should expect to have some form of math homework each night. Most nights, students will have math worksheets. Some nights, students may just have fact practice. Please have your students practice addition, subtraction, multiplication, and/or division facts for a minimum of 10 minutes. Practice with telling time and working with money also helps them immensely. They can use flashcards or math apps to complete this practice.

READING WONDERS:

This is our English Language Arts curriculum. This program includes reading, writing, phonics, grammar, and spelling. The program supports building a strong reading foundation, accessing complex texts, finding and using text evidence, and engaging in collaborative conversations. We will also be studying different genres in reading, building up our reading stamina, and our comprehension of different types of texts.

SPELLING:

At the end of the week, your student will receive his/her spelling list to take home over the weekend. Spelling tests will be over 20 words (top 15, bottom 5 challenge words). On the back of the spelling tests we will be including a multiple choice vocabulary assessment with the definitions that are sent home with the spelling list (our weekly reading objectives sheet).

PHONICS: We will be using a Phonics book, following the same program the students are familiar with from second grade. We use Pearson’s phonics program which covers: consonant sounds, short and long vowels, compound words, multi-syllable words, blends and digraphs, y as a consonant and a vowel, r-controlled vowels, contractions, plurals, suffixes (-able), vowel pairs, digraphs (aw, au, ei), diphthongs (oy, oi, ow, ou, ew), prefixes, base words, synonyms, antonyms, homonyms (right-write), homographs (bat and bat), and even dictionary skills. Phonics promotes reading accuracy and the understanding of letter sounds in spelling.

ENGLISH/WRITING:

We will be using Voyages in English to study grammar and writing this year. The aspects of grammar we will study include: sentences, nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions, punctuation, capitalization, and sentence diagramming. Students will then use what they have learned to write personal narratives, how-to articles, descriptions, personal letters, book reports, persuasive writings, and research reports.

3rd Grade Rotations

For third grade, we feel that it is great for the students to become more responsible and independent by switching classrooms for one subject.

They also get to work in a different environment with its own unique teacher.

SCIENCE: All of third grade will have science with Mrs. Margraves. We will be using the ScienceFusion program. In this program the students participate in different activities involving print, labs, and even digital lessons. The students will have workbooks covering 10 different units about the nature of science, life science, earth and space science, and physical science.We will also be investigating STEAM careers (science, technology, engineering, art, and math professions). We will be having an engineering project involving the design process we will learn in January.

SOCIAL STUDIES:Social Studies will be taught by Mrs. McNamee. Third grade curriculum focuses on Michigan history with the Meet Michigan textbook, while the students will also learn from the TCI series (Our Community and Beyond). There are many different things that will be covered throughout the year, including Michigan facts, Native Americans, physical geography, different cultures within our state.

Please feel free to contact the appropriate teacher for questions or concerns regarding these specific subjects. Thank You!

Science Questions: Mrs.

Social Studies Questions: Mrs. McNamee

HOMEWORK: Your students will have take-home folders which need to be returned each day. There will be a calendar and homework log the folder each month starting in September.

  • Reviewing and Studying: In third grade, studying for tests or quizzes becomes important daily and helps your child become a more independent student. We will greatly be working on test-taking skills and study skills over the year. Thank you for your support in advance!
  • Reading Homework: Students are expected to read for at least 20 minutes each night. This may increase after the second quarter. Each month the students will receive a new Homework Log to document that they have read. A parent or adult guardian should only initial the nights that their student read out loud to them. Your students need to read to you in order to practice being a reader (fluency, expression, public speaking, etc.). Be sure to record the titles of the books your student has read at the bottom of the log. This informs us of your student’s interests, strengths, and even gives us an idea of what to work on during individual lessons in the classroom.
  • Math Homework: Each week your student will have some type of practice work for math. This will come as worksheets or textbook pages. Please check over their work and check with your student for understanding. If no paper homework is given, please have your student practice their math facts for at least 10 minutes each night. Some ideas for fact practice include flashcards, websites, apps, telling time, working with money and much, much more.

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