3rd Grade

Click a tab on the left to read about the different curricular areas at the third grade level. We follow the Archdiocesen guidelines that can be found on the Archdiocese of Philadephia website at http://www.aopcatholicschools.org/elementary-schools/curriculum/

Third grade is a pivotal year for your child. Learning to read with fluency and confidence will serve as a foundation for the reading demands in later grades. By practicing with learning-to-read strategies, your child will reliably be able to make sense of multisyllable words in books. He or she will come to appreciate that words have meanings that are not literal (e.g., a piece of cake) and have relationships to other words (e.g., company and companion). Recognizing and understanding words will help your child read increasingly challenging stories and books and build knowledge about the world around him or her. By the end of the year, your child also will be writing clear sentences and paragraphs on a range of topics, drawing on an expanding vocabulary.

The ability to write logical arguments based on substantive claims, sound reasoning, and relevant evidence is a cornerstone of the writing standards, with opinion writing---a basic form of argument---extending down into the earliest grades.

In 3rd grade, your child will learn important new ideas and gain important new skills. One of the most important topics this year is multiplication, division and fractions. Multiplication, division, and fractions are the building blocks for many life skills that students will learn in later grades, such as percentages. Students also need to master these topics to be ready for algebra and advanced math, so it is essential to get a good start with these topics in 3rd grade.

Lab Learner directly addresses next generation science standards, skills, and data analysis methods through hands on experiments. Properties of Matter, Exploring Electricity, The Human Body, Our Solar System and the Sun and Your Skin are the different units covered.