THIRD GRADE DEVELOPMENT
During the course of the next two years there is a developmental turning point. It is as though the child walks a new path, where clarity of understanding dawns as a new world. The fantasy life begins to fade and the child begins to see the world as it is. It is a time for questioning, wondering and criticism. The curriculum takes Hebrew Bible stories as literary reference to the human condition.  As human beings make their way in the world through these stories, the student learns about self sufficiency in the form of farming/gardening, shelter/house-building, and the use of various fibers for clothing.  Reading, writing in cursive, writing letters and stories and grammar are developed.  Using math in the practical aspects of measurement, such as; house building, or making clothing, adds to the repertoire of the basic math skills. An overnight field trip where the students plow with oxen and horses is an example of how the curriculum helps to meet the awakening student with practical and real activities. This change in awareness allows for new skills to develop. In the third grade year the children learn to play recorders and violin.

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THIRD GRADE CURRICULUM

LANGUAGE ARTS
Writing

• Introduction of cursive writing
  
• Practice writing legibly
  
• Writing letters and thank you notes
  
• Introduce accurate structure of sentences with correct punctuation
  
• Begin to develop paragraph writing skills
  
• Writing short descriptive compositions
  

Reading

• Reading what they have written in their main lesson books
  
• Reading books in reading groups
  
• Learning the sounds of various vowel combinations
  

Grammar

• Learning the following parts of speech:  nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs
  
• Construction of complete sentences
  
• Learning punctuation:  periods, question marks, commas, and apostrophes
  
• Learning to use capital letters
  
• Learning to use singular and plural nouns
  
• Learning alphabetical order
  

Speaking

• Re-telling of stories
  
• Poetry recitation
  
• Class play
  

MATHEMATICS

• Review all previous work, especially place value
  
• Continue with mental math
  
• Students learn to check their work
  
• The world of numbers
  
• Gain fluency with counting up to 1000
  
• Place value work with larger numbers
  
• Number dictations are continued
  
• Learning all the arithmetic facts
  
• Now is the time to learn the multiplication and division facts out of order, as well as the addition and subtraction facts
  
• The four processes
  
• Vertical addition with carrying
  
• Vertical subtraction with borrowing
  
• Vertical multiplication introduced with single-digit multipliers
  
• Vertical division introduced with single-digit divisors
  
• Measurement
  
• Introduce time, length, weight and liquid/dry measurement
  
• Bartering and use of money
  
• Calendar
  

SCIENCE
Natural and Social Sciences

• Farming in relation to seasons, geography, local economy and culture
  
• House building in relation to climate, geography, regional economies and cultures
  
• Gardening
  
• Cooking in connection with measurement and farming
  

ART
Painting

• Images from the curriculum, nature studies, and seasonal themes
  

Drawing

• Form drawing
  
• The class teacher demonstrates techniques for developing balanced compositions
  

Modeling

• The children model with beeswax in relation to main lesson topics
  

FOREIGN LANGUAGE
FRENCH AND GERMAN

• Continued expansion of contents listed for Grade 2
  
• Acting and learning individual parts of dramatized stories
  
• Picture dictations
  
• Practice of grammatical forms through stories and dialog
  
• Verb conjugation, adjective declension, negation, and gender
  
• Telling time
  
• Spatial prepositions
  
• Singing in the round
  

HANDWORK

• Crocheting in the round and square
  
• Projects may include coasters, seat pad, pouches, ball net, hat
  

ORCHESTRA

• Fundamentals of playing violin:  bow hold and violin posture
  
• Simple rhythms
  
• D major scale
  

GYM

• Continuing concepts learned in Grades 1 & 2
  
• Mildly competitive games
  
• Gymnastics
  
• Complicated coordinated movement
  
• Skills involving sports of our culture
  
• Individual jump rope skills