Horseheads Elementary Schools
Welcome to Third Grade
Third grade is a transition time between the primary grades and the intermediate grades. Students in third grade assume responsibility for completing homework and class assignments in a timely manner as they acquire skills and strategies that help them work independently. Curriculum is based on the New York State Standards for Grades K-3. These standards prepare students to take the state assessments in English/Language Arts and Math with focus and confidence.
Here are some of our priorities for Third Grade:
| English Language Arts | Listening and reading (character, plot, setting; sequencing events; author's purpose; vocabulary; main idea; genres - stories, poems, and plays; facts/opinions; fantasy/realism; predictions, conclusions, and inferences; collecting and interpreting information); written responses (paragraphs with topic sentence, detail, concluding sentence; grammar, punctuation, and spelling; organizational patterns such as compare/contrast; cursive writing); speaking (volume; eye contact; expressing ideas clearly). |
| Mathematics | Addition and subtraction facts; place value; measuring line segments; identifying geometric shapes and symmetric figures; developing appropriate problem-solving strategies; fractions; bar graphs; measuring temperature and counting coins; multiplication and division facts through 12; time; adding and subtracting three-digit numbers. |
| Science | Focus on "the living environment" (plants and animals, how things grow, the food chain, life cycles, nutrition, measurement, water, simple machines, structures of life, etc.) and "The Physical Setting" (the solar system, weather, forms of energy) |
| Social Studies | Communities around the world; map skills, location, cultural characteristics, physical environments, symbols, and rules/laws of world communities; economic decision-making in world communities - needs and wants; governments around the world; world leaders - presidents, kings or queens, tribal chiefs, dictators, etc. |