3rd Grade

Third grade is an exciting year at Mountain View! Students transition from being dependent to independent learners. In all content areas, students work collaboratively on projects and we often bring in technology to enhance their learning. One special piece of third grade is learning cursive. We look forward to working with you and your family to make your third graders year a productive and fun one! 

This page will be updated monthly with our current units of instruction, math games to enjoy at home with your family, and important dates to mark on the calendar.  We will send out a Remind message to let you know when the website has been updated. 

Upcoming Important Dates 

November 14th Butterfly Pavilion Field Trip 8:30-12:30

November 19th Junior Achievement Day (In classrooms 8:00-11:30)

November 25-29th NO SCHOOL

**Please be sure to be checking and reading the Friday Flash sent to your email by Administration as it will always include imporant information and events about Mountain View.  If you are not recieving the Friday Flash email, please contact either Ana or Marcy at (720) 972-5520 to help you get added onto that email list.**

Math

Multiplication and Division

Over the next several weeks, we will continue to practice the foundational concepts of multiplication, various strategies for solving and representing multiplication,  and solving multiplication stories.  We will start to explore division as the inverse operation of multiplication, bridging the learning by beginning with missing factor problems. Students will learn to use equal grouping or fair sharing strategies to solve division problems.  We will also take an indepth look at explaining our mathematical thinking in writing so that others can understand our process. 

Reading

Unit 3- Illustrations Illuminate - A study of fables, folktales and myths from diverse cultures, explaining how specific aspects of illustrations contribute to what is conveyed by the words in a story.

We are currently starting our third reading unit, which focuses on studying fables, folktales and myths from diverse cultures.  Students are practicing retelling a story using the CASPER elements (Character, Attributes, Setting, Problem, Events, and Resolution).  Students are working on being able to identify the central message, moral or theme of a story and explain how it is conveyed through key details.  Additionally,  students will work on explaining how specific aspects of a text’s illustrations contribute to what is conveyed by the words in a story (e.g., create mood, emphasize aspects of a character or setting)

Throughout all of the reading units this year, we will be pushing kids to justify and support their thinking by going back into the text and finding text evidence.  This will require students to go back and re-read a text multiple times, and pay attention to the illustrations, both lifelong learning skills of all successful readers.

Using links on the literacy page, you will find both the third grade literacy (fiction texts) common core reading standards and the informational (non-fiction texts) common core reading standards. 

Writing

Opinion: Students will write an opinion piece on topics supporting a point of view with reasons and information in which they introduce the topic clearly, state an opinion and create an organizational structure in which related ideas are grouped to support the writer’s purpose.

 Throughout this unit, students will

• write an opinion piece on a topic or text.

• introduce the topic or text about which they are writing.

• state an opinion.

• supply reasons that support their point of view.

• create an organizational structure that lists reasons.

• use linking words and phrases to connect opinion with reasons.

• provide a concluding statement or section.

Posted in the literacy tab you will find rubrics that we use to gauge student mastery of our writing standards.

Science

Unit 1- Life Cycles-A study of the similarities and variation across the life cycles of organisms

In our first science unit students will be exposed to the scientific process in whole group and small group setting by asking a testable question and collecting data about the cycles of a variety of organisms (e.g. mealworms, butterflies, plants). Students will sequence the stages of a life cycle of plants, animals, and insects and predict what will happen to the species if one part of the life cycle is removed. Students will also  compare and contrast the different needs of an organism in various stages in the life cycle 

Homework

Typically, the only homework that we require nightly is reading homework. We believe that time after school should be spent participating in extra curricular activities and spending time as a family.   Our first homework assignment is to create a timeline of events. You may choose to make a timeline of events that have happened each year in the student’s life OR a timeline of what your child wants thier future to look like. You may use any type of media to create the timeline (construction paper, poster board, labels). The goal of this assignment is two-fold; first for families to connect over fond memories and second to touch on our history standard by developing an understanding of how people view, construct, and interpret history. The project will be due December 16th. Please feel free to reach out to your student’s teacher with any questions. The goals of this project is for students to understand their history and see the history of other's in thier classroom to build and strenthen the classroom community.  

Make-up Work

We understand that there maybe times where students have to miss an extended time in school whether it be for family emergencies or fun travel plans.  During this time we DO NOT send make-up work for your student to complete during.  There are a number of reasons why we do no send make-up work.  First, this time is meant for families to spend together.  We would rather your student enjoy the time traveling than worrying about getting school work done.  Another reason is that most of the work that would need to be made up is accompanied by a lesson in the classroom.  The work would be unproductive without the corresponding classroom lesson.  Also, if the reason that the student is missing school is for an emergency, we don't want you and your family worrying about class work when there are more pressing matters on your mind.  If you would like some work for your child during this time we suggest reading and writing a journal entry about their experience.