St. Mary School of Rockwood at 32447 Church St., Rockwood, MI 48173 US - Third Grade

Third grade is a transitional year for students. The curriculum is broad and challenging.

We do many creative projects and activities to make learning fun and rewarding.

Reading is presented in a creative,but educational format. It is no longer just decoding and understanding the basic structure of a story. They begin using more critical thinking skills to analyze, compare and contrast, and form inferences. They expand their vocabulary and begin reading books with smaller print, less pictures, and more pages. We will use the F.A.S.T. Reading Program. The teachers have completed formal training and are very excited to use these innovative and hands-on strategies in our classrooms. The children are tested and work in groups of comparable abilities. They manipulate letters and combinations of sounds on magnetic white boards in order to better understand how words are made. This results in better decoding and spelling skills. The students love “the hungry rule”, “body guards”, “the bully rule”, and other funny rules that explain essential concepts. A series of books, written by Stephen Tattum, are used with the boards. The books are read orally using a “pressure release” technique that helps students increase their fluency. The F.A.S.T. program will improve your child's decoding skills, fluency, comprehension and writing. The class will also complete a textbook, Treasures Volume 3.2, published by Macmillan/McGraw-Hill. Third graders participate in the Book It program, Accelerated Reader, and complete book reports and projects. WOW! You will be so proud of their progress.

Math becomes more challenging. They will be working in the Math 54 textbook. Computation, measurement, and numerations are reviewed, and more complicated forms of mathematics are introduced for mastery including: multiplication, division, multiple digit computation, fractions, and graphing. Time-testing and problem solving is done on Fridays. Finally, we use the Accelerated Math program once a week to individualize learning and pinpoint individual strengths and weaknesses.

Social Studies will begin with the study of the globe and mapping. This includes continents, oceans, hemispheres, compass rose, and reading different types of maps. The second quarter begins an in-depth study of Michigan. We will discover how the Great Lakes were formed and who were the first inhabitants. We will travel on the Great Lakes with the first French and English explorers and end with Michigan becoming a state.

Science includes the study of plants and animals, ecosystems and environmental adaptations, Earth science, Force and Motion, and Properties of Matter. Hands on experiments are done by individuals and small groups. They will learn to observation, questioning, recording skills to develop solutions. Class projects will be fun and educational!

Cursive handwriting is stressed in third grade. The students do a comprehensive review of all the lower and upper case letters and practice using a scripture based program.

English comprises learning the parts of speech, punctuation and capitalization, and sentence and paragraph development. We are beginning “the writing process” that will help students organize their thoughts, write in sequence, revise for greater creativity, edit for correct mechanics and publish a final paper. Students will learn how to: write notes, develop more complex sentences, write descriptive paragraphs, write a personal narrative, compare and contrast, and prepare a “How to” speech.

Vocabulary is used throughout the curriculum. Our new Vocabulary program has taken the place of ordinary rote spelling. Each student is responsible for learning , not only the spelling of their list words, but also the meanings, synonyms and antonyms, and accurate usage. These words will be used for the end of the year Spelling Bee.

Religion is taught every day. We have a new series called, The Faith and Life Series, Our life with Jesus. The lessons will help children learn the truths, doctrines, traditions and the rich culture found in the Catholic Church. Bible study and prayers are included in the curriculum. Third graders are required to learn the 10 commandments and the Apostles Creed.

Third grade gives students a chance to grow intellectually and spiritually. It is so rewarding to see the metamorphosis throughout the year. Thank you for giving me the chance to teach your children. I consider it a privilege and a sacred trust.

Mrs. Sisung