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3rd Grade

   At IAA, our third grade curriculum promotes mastery of skills learned in earlier grades as well as introduction to more sophisticated concepts requiring enhanced critical thinking skills.

Third graders will develop more complex skills as they read longer fiction and nonfiction texts. They will also be introduced to detailed graphic organizers, improve grammar skills and skillfully summarize text. In math, there will be a shift to more complex processes including multiplication, division, fractions, geometry and probability.

The 3rd grade core courses include; English Language Arts, Math, Social Studies, and Science.  In English/Language Arts we currently use the Reading Street curriculum by Savvas. Our math curriculum is McGraw Hill, My Math and our science curriculum is Interactive Science by Pearson. Our core curriculum is implemented along with an enriched and unique Arabic and Islamic Studies program guided by experienced instructors. 

Objectives/ Alabama State Standards

English/Language Arts

Foundational Skills

  • Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding multi-syllable words
  • Identify and know the meaning of most common prefixes and suffixes, including Latin suffixes 
  • Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension; Read grade-level appropriate irregularly spelled words
  •  Use context to confirm or self-correct word recognition and understanding

Reading Standards for Informational Text and Literature

  • Ask and answer text-based questions; Refer explicitly to the text as the basis for answers 
  • Use text features and search tools to locate information; 
  • Recount stories including fables, folktales and myths from diverse cultures; 
  • Determine central message, main idea, lesson or moral; Explain how it is conveyed using key details
  • Describe traits, motivations and feelings of characters; Determine meaning of words and phrases 
  • Use terms such as chapter, scene and stanza when writing or speaking about a text
  • Distinguish own point of view from that of the narrator or those of the characters 
  • Explain how illustrations can contribute to what is conveyed in text (create mood, show setting, etc.) 
  • Compare and contrast the themes, settings and plots of books within a series 
  • Read and comprehend grade-level literature and informational text independently and proficiently
  • Describe the relationship between a series of historical events, scientific ideas or steps in procedures 
  • Use language that relates to time, sequence and cause/effect in discussing texts 
  • Determine the meaning of general academic and domain-specific words relevant to Grade 3 topics 
  • Describe the logical connection between sentences and paragraphs in text (comparison, cause/effect) 
  • Compare and contrast the most important points and details from two texts on the same topic

Writing Standards

  • Write opinion pieces on topics or texts; Support/justify opinions with reasons
  •  Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic; Convey ideas and information clearly 
  • Write narratives; Develop real or imagined experiences using effective techniques and sequences 
  • With guidance, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising and editing 
  • With guidance, use technology to produce and publish writing and to collaborate with others 
  • Write routinely over extended timeframes for research, reflection and revision 
  • Write for a range of specific tasks during a single setting or limited timeframe; Conduct short research projects 

Speaking and Listening Standards

  • Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions; Speak in complete sentences when appropriate to task 
  • Ask questions to check understanding; Stay on topic and express ideas clearly in light of discussion 
  • Report on topic, tell story or recount an experience with appropriate detail, pace and clarity 
  • Create audio recordings that demonstrate fluid reading at an understandable pace;
  • Determine main idea and supporting details from text read aloud; Ask and answer questions about information from a speaker 

Language Standards

  • Demonstrate command of the conventions of Standard English grammar and usage 
  • Demonstrate command of the conventions of capitalization, punctuation and spelling when writing 
  • Determine or clarify meaning of words and phrases by flexibly using a variety of strategies 
  • Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships and nuances in word meanings 

Maths

Operations and Algebraic Thinking

  • Represent and solve problems involving multiplication and division
  •  Fluently multiply and divide within 100; Use relationship between multiplication and division 
  • Solve one- and two-step problems using addition, subtraction, multiplication and division
  •  Represent problems using equations with a letter standing for an unknown quantity  Assess the reasonableness of answers using mental computation and estimation strategies  Identify arithmetic patterns and explain them using properties of operations 

Numbers and Operations in Base Ten

  • Use place value understanding and properties of operations to perform multi-digit arithmetic 
  • Use place value understanding to round whole numbers to the nearest ten or hundred 
  • Fluently add and subtract within 1,000 using strategies and algorithms based on place value 
  • Multiply one-digit whole numbers by multiples of ten 

Numbers and Operations – Fractions

  • Develop an understanding of fractions as numbers 
  • Understand a fraction as a number on a number line; Represent fractions on a number line diagram 
  • Explain equivalence of fractions in special cases; Compare fractions by reasoning about their size 
  • Recognize fractions that are equivalent to whole numbers 
  • Compare fractions; Record the comparisons with the symbols <, >, = and justify the conclusions 

Measurement Data

  • Solve problems involving measurement and estimation of intervals of time, volumes and masses 
  • Tell and write time to the nearest minute; Solve problems involving elapsed time 
  • Measure and estimate liquid volumes and masses of objects using standards units 
  • Draw a scaled picture graph and a scaled bar graph to represent a data set with several categories
  • Measure lengths using rulers marked with halves and fourths of an inch; Represent data 
  • Recognize area as an attribute of a plane figure and understand concepts of area measurement 
  • Measure areas by counting unit squares; Relate area to multiplication and addition operations 
  • Recognize perimeter as attribute of plane figures; Distinguish between linear and area measurements 
  • Solve real world and mathematical problems involving perimeters and areas of polygons 

Geometry

  • Reason with shapes and their attributes 
  • Understand that shapes in different categories may share attributes which define larger categories 
  • Partition shapes into parts with equal areas; Express the area of each part as a fraction of the whole. 

Science

Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions

  • Plan and carry out an experiment to determine the effects of balanced and unbalanced forces on the motion of an object using one variable at a time, including number, size, direction, speed, position, friction, or air resistance, and communicate these findings graphically. 
  • Investigate, measure, and communicate in a graphical format how an observed pattern of motion can be used to predict the future motion of an object.
  • Explore objects that can be manipulated in order to determine cause-and-effect relationships of electric interactions between two objects not in contact with one another  or magnetic interactions between two objects not in contact with one another.

From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes

  • Obtain and combine information to describe that organisms are classified as living things, rather than nonliving things, based on their ability to obtain and use resources, grow, reproduce, and maintain stable internal conditions while living in a constantly changing external environment. 
  • Create representations to explain the unique and diverse life cycles of organisms other than humans, including commonalities such as birth, growth, reproduction, and death. 

Heredity: Inheritance and Variation of Traits

  • Examine data to provide evidence that plants and animals, excluding humans, have traits inherited from parents and that variations of these traits exist in groups of similar organisms 
  • Engage in argument from evidence to justify that traits can be influenced by the environment

Unity and Diversity

  • Analyze and interpret data from fossils to provide evidence of organisms and the environments in which they lived long ago 
  • Investigate how variations in characteristics among individuals of the same species may provide advantages in surviving, finding mates, and reproducing 
  • Construct an argument from evidence to explain the likelihood of an organism’s ability to survive when compared to the resources in a certain habitat 
  • Evaluate engineered solutions to a problem created by environmental changes and any resulting impacts on the types and density of plant and animal populations living in the environment

Earth’s Systems

  • Display data graphically and in tables to describe typical weather conditions expected during a particular season 
  • Collect information from a variety of sources to describe climates in different regions of the world. 

Earth and Human Activity

  • Evaluate a design solution that reduces the impact of a weather-related hazard.

Social Studies

  • Locate the prime meridian, equator, Tropic of Capricorn, Tropic of Cancer, International Date Line, and lines of latitude and longitude on maps and globes.  
  • Locate the continents on a map or globe.  
  • Describe ways the environment is affected by humans in Alabama and the  world. Relate population dispersion to geographic, economic, and historic changes in    Alabama and the world. 
  • Compare trading patterns between countries and regions.  
  • Identify conflicts within and between geographic areas involving use of land, economic competition for scarce resources, opposing political views, boundary disputes, and cultural differences.  
  • Describe the relationship between locations of resources and patterns of   population distribution. 
  • Identify geographic links of land regions, river systems, and interstate highways between Alabama and other states. 
  • Identify ways to prepare for natural disasters.   
  • Recognize functions of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States.
  • Interpret various primary sources for reconstructing the past, including   documents, letters, diaries, maps, and photographs. 
  • Explain the significance of representations of American values and beliefs, including the Statue of Liberty, the statue of Lady Justice, the United States flag, and the national anthem. 
  • Describe prehistoric and historic American Indian cultures, governments, and     economics in Alabama.