Mrs. Gogerty
Third Grade Class
Specialist Schedule
Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday |
|---|---|---|---|---|
PE & Art | PE | Technology | Spanish | Music |
About Third Grade...
Second Trimester (January-March)
Third grade is flying by! Students have adjusted to our routines and expectations. Many new friendships are forming as we continue to encourage positive working environments. We are looking forward to celebrating our 100th Day of School, Valentine’s Day, and Read Across America!
Reading: Nonfiction
We are diving into nonfiction. We will learn about the different types of nonfiction books and identify text features to help us navigate through various nonfiction texts. This work with nonfiction will benefit students when we research biographies in April and May.
We will also complete another novel study with Third Grade Angels by Jerry Spinelli,
where students are immersed in reviewing reading strategies that will help them further comprehend books at their independent level. We also will be exploring how to respond to a text that we read with reading comprehension questions and written responses. We encourage students to go back in the text to support their overall understanding of a text. We will also immerse ourselves in Black History Month by reading and writing about important African American individuals, such as Jackie Robinson, Jesse Owens, Ruby Bridges, Mae Jemison, and many more.
We are excited to celebrate Read Across America Week. During this week, students will have DEAR time, participate in buddy reading, and enjoy a special visit from the well known children’s author, Sarah Albee.
Writing: Paragraphs and Essays
We are fully immersed in writing paragraphs in third grade, and we are developing our paragraph skills to write our first essays. We are working hard on organizing our essays with four paragraphs, including text evidence and transition words. We are working on literary analysis essays, compare and contrast essays, and research essays. We will be reading multiple books and stories to base our literary analysis essay on. We are exploring various animals to write compare and contrast essays, such as dolphins and porpoises. In addition, we are researching numerous topics to write our research essays, including picking a campsite.
Mathematics: Geometry, Fractions, Operations
We are continuing to practice our operations, number sense, measurement, and problem-solving skills in our Everyday Math program. We will learn more about geometry, including special quadrilaterals. We will also get our first exposure to fractions and we have the opportunity for students to explore the math program, Frax, to assist in fraction understanding. We will also work on “Fraction Action” in class which will benefit students gaining more knowledge on the basics of fractions, and the terminology associated with fractions. We also will learn about area and perimeter. In addition, students continue to practice NJSLA style open-ended responses, which require multiple steps as well as thorough explanations.
Science: Earth Science
In our second rotation of science, students will discover more about Earth Science. We will learn about the different “ingredients” of weather, as well as the difference between climate and weather. We also will discover the differing types of extreme weather. In particular, we focus on hurricanes and their potential for destruction. We research the effects of hurricanes and the types of houses that best withstand a hurricane. Students will begin to design a plan of what their ideal hurricane house will look like. Students come together as a group to decide what their hurricane house should look like. Then, students have the opportunity to budget and “purchase” hurricane house materials to build a hurricane house that will withstand hurricane type winds. We dedicate many days to engineering our hurricane house and making adjustments as needed. At the end of the science rotation, we will test our hurricane houses to see if they can withstand all five categories of a hurricane. As a culminating piece of the project, we spend time reflecting on how we can improve our hurricane houses.
Social Studies: World Geography
In our second rotation of Social Studies, we will be exploring the continent of Asia. Specifically, we are going to study Japan and China as a class. We will discover the history, geography, traditions, and more about each of the countries. In addition, students will practice their online researching skills by participating in online scavenger hunts to discover more information and answer questions related to Japan and China. We even will take a virtual field trip to the Great Wall of China!
Another important component of our second rotation of Social Studies is the opportunity for students to research and explore another country in Asia. Students will work in groups to research, compile fast facts about their selected country, and create a culminating poster that displays their knowledge of this country in Asia. Students will present their country to their classmates, therefore, we all have a chance to hear about various countries in Asia.