Third Grade
Third graders enjoy a variety of texts and writing experiences, developing critical thinking, creativity, and connections to real-world topics.
Reading:
Third graders expand their reading lives by analyzing characters and their motivations, examining text structures, comparing perspectives, and supporting their thinking with evidence from the text. Through interactive read-alouds, book clubs, and independent reading, students learn to think critically. The Orton-Gillingham (OG)/Institute for Multi-Sensory Education (IMSE) approach continues to reinforce decoding, morphology (prefixes, suffixes, roots), and vocabulary. As part of their special Kuumba Project, students conduct in-depth research on different African countries, integrating reading strategies to gather, organize, and present information. Reading both nonfiction texts on global topics and fiction like The Hundred Dresses helps students grow in empathy and critical thinking, connecting stories and information to their own lives and communities.
Writing:
In writing, students learn to draft, revise, edit, and publish across genres, with a strong emphasis on organization, elaboration, and craft. Writing units include personal narratives, opinion and persuasive pieces, nonfiction research, and mysteries, where students plan plots, build suspense, and develop characters. Teachers model how to brainstorm ideas, structure paragraphs, and strengthen word choice, while peer collaboration encourages revision and sharing. The OG/IMSE approach supports grammar, spelling, and sentence fluency. By celebrating their work with creative cover art, unique illustrations, and class-wide publishing projects, third graders learn the power of sharing their voices and begin to see themselves as authors with stories worth telling.Third graders use the enVision math program, which combines problem-based and visual learning to strengthen conceptual understanding. Students focus on mastering multiplication and division facts and developing efficient strategies for solving complex, multi-step problems. Projects and hands-on activities make concepts like fractions, area, and data come alive, reinforcing the link between mathematical thinking and everyday problem-solving. For instance, students might plan a budget for a class event or conduct a school-wide survey and create a data report. Through this work, students become resourceful and flexible thinkers who can apply math to any challenge.
Third graders act as geologists and biologists, exploring water, climate, weather, and animal adaptations. They investigate water as a vital resource by modeling the water cycle or collecting and graphing rainfall data. Students study how species survive in different habitats and might design a sustainable environment for a mythical class pet. Vocabulary such as evaporation, climate, adapt, resource, and system gives them the language to think like scientists. Through in-depth, project-based learning, students apply scientific thinking to real-world issues, becoming empathetic, globally-minded problem solvers.
Third graders dive into how geography shapes New Jersey, they investigate continents and oceans, and uncover how our government works. Through units like Mapping Our World and Government & Our Freedoms, students examine our state’s unique geographical features, from the nearby Hudson River to our coastlines. They also investigate the three branches of the U.S. government, discovering how laws are created to protect communities and freedoms. As part of our year-long Kuumba immersive dance study, students also “travel” to Africa to research a country. Learning about another continent broadens their perspective and deepens their appreciation of global diversity. Research projects, field trips, and cross-curricular studies build civic and cultural awareness. These experiences encourage students to value the diverse communities that make up both our state and our world.
To view a detailed monthly curriculum click here.