Language Arts Curriculum
We use the reading series Storytown to teach reading skills, spelling, and vocabulary. It is divided into themes that last five weeks each. The first four weeks we learn new skills, and the fifth week is a review week. Each week we have a spelling list, a vocabulary list, and a comprehension focus.
There will be tests every Friday. These tests will cover the comprehension skill of the week, the spelling words, and the vocabulary words. Spelling and vocabulary words will be sent home the Friday before in your child's Friday Folder. They can also be downloaded here on the website.
There will be tests every Friday. These tests will cover the comprehension skill of the week, the spelling words, and the vocabulary words. Spelling and vocabulary words will be sent home the Friday before in your child's Friday Folder. They can also be downloaded here on the website.
Comprehension
Making sure that your child has a deep understanding of what he or she reads is extremely important. We work on a variety of comprehension strategies. We spend two weeks introducing the strategy, and then practice it throughout the year. The strategies we focus on include Identifying Character Traits, Understanding Nonfiction Text Features, Determining the Author's Purpose, Identifying Facts and Opinions, Determining Cause and Effect, Finding the Main Idea and Details, Comparing and Contrasting, find the Plot of a story, and Sequencing.
You can help improve your child's comprehension by discussing with your child the books he or she reads. Ask open-ended questions about the book, such as, "Why do you think the character did that? How does she feel right now? How do you know? What do you think will he do next? What evidence in the text helped you come up with that answer?"
It is extremely important that your child have time to read each day. The benefits to reading at home are well-researched. Students who spend just 20 minutes a day reading text at their reading level consistently perform better at school than peers who do not.
You can help improve your child's comprehension by discussing with your child the books he or she reads. Ask open-ended questions about the book, such as, "Why do you think the character did that? How does she feel right now? How do you know? What do you think will he do next? What evidence in the text helped you come up with that answer?"
It is extremely important that your child have time to read each day. The benefits to reading at home are well-researched. Students who spend just 20 minutes a day reading text at their reading level consistently perform better at school than peers who do not.
Fluency
Reading fluency is another important part of reading. The goal for third graders is to consistently read at least 100 words per minute. You can help your child's reading fluency by reading aloud with your child. Read a book together, alternating pages. In this way you model fluent reading and also give your child time to practice. This does not need to be for your child's entire reading time, but spending a short time together reading not only helps your child with fluency but also gives you the opportunity to discuss the book with your child.
Spelling and Vocabulary
There will be tests every Friday. These tests will cover the comprehension skill of the week, the spelling words, and the vocabulary words. Spelling and vocabulary words will be sent home the Friday before in your child's Friday Folder. They can also be downloaded here on the website.
Is your child having difficulty learning new vocabulary? I created spelling and vocabulary lessons on Spelling City for each story. Click here to visit our Spelling City page with spelling and vocabulary lists for all the stories.
Is your child having difficulty learning new vocabulary? I created spelling and vocabulary lessons on Spelling City for each story. Click here to visit our Spelling City page with spelling and vocabulary lists for all the stories.
Grammar and Writing
We do a variety of activities during our writing time to strengthen your child's writing skills. Your child will have a writing journal at school where he or she will work on a variety of projects. Over the course of the year we will be writing personal narratives, research reports, and poetry. We will write in a variety of genres on our classroom blog. I encourage you to work with your child on blog posts and model writing as an important skill by commenting and sharing on the blog as well.
A goal in third grade is that everyone will be able to write a paragraph with a topic sentence, supporting details, and a concluding sentence. The supporting details should include transition words. Here is a link to a sample paragraph with all of the different components that I expect. My Crazy Cats.
For grammar, we try to incorporate what we learn into our writing at every opportunity.
A goal in third grade is that everyone will be able to write a paragraph with a topic sentence, supporting details, and a concluding sentence. The supporting details should include transition words. Here is a link to a sample paragraph with all of the different components that I expect. My Crazy Cats.
For grammar, we try to incorporate what we learn into our writing at every opportunity.