Grade 3 Team

Course Description: The overall emphasis in this course will be on developing a wide variety of math skills within the state standards of Minnesota. There is a focus on all of the required standards, yet students will have a strong focus on numbers and operations, algebra, geometry, measurement, and data analysis.

Number and Operations Proficiency Targets

• I can read, write, identify, and represent the place value of numbers through one hundred thousand.
• I can use place value to describe whole numbers between one and one hundred thousand.
• I can find the number that is 100, 1,000 or 10,000 more or less than a given number.
• I can round numbers to the nearest ten, hundred, thousand, and ten-thousand.
• I can compare and put numbers in order up to 100,000.
• I can add and subtract up to 4-digit numbers.
• I can decide if I need to add or subtract whole numbers in real world problems.
• I can find the perimeter of a closed figure by adding the lengths of the sides.
• I can measure the distance around an object to the half unit, using a ruler.
• I can represent multiplication facts (up to 12x12) using a variety of approaches:
  • Repeated addition
  • Equal sized groups
  • Arrays
  • Area models
  • Jumps on a number line
  • Skip counting

Algebra Proficiency Targets

• I can understand how to interpret number sentences using multiplication and division basic facts and unknowns.
• I can use number sense, multiplication, and division of basic facts to find values for the unknowns that make the number sentence true.
• I can create and describe the input/output rule by using addition, subtraction, or multiplication.

Geometry and Measurement Proficiency Targets

• I can identify parallel and perpendicular lines within a shape (triangle, parallelogram, rectangle, rhombus, square, and trapezoid).
• I can sketch and identify a shape given the number of sides and vertices (e.g., triangle, parallelogram, rectangle, rhombus, square, trapezoid, pentagon, hexagon, octagon).

Data Proficiency Targets

• I can collect, organize, and display data in frequency tables, bar graphs, line plots, and pictographs.
• I can interpret data in frequency tables, bar graphs, line plots, and pictographs.

Course Description: The overall emphasis in this course will be on developing an understanding of citizenship and government focusing on the primary functions of the three branches of government. An understanding of economics with a focus on goods and services as well as identifying and understanding income as money earned. Students will also have an understanding of geography specifically focusing on interpreting and creating maps. Finally students will develop an understanding of history by creating timelines of important events as well as comparing and contrasting two different accounts of an event.

Citizenship and Government

• I can identify and describe the jobs for the three branches of government (executive, judicial, and legislative).

Economics

• I can give examples of how positive economic incentives reward people financially for making certain choices.
• I can give examples of how negative economic incentives penalize people financially for making certain choices and behaving in a certain way.
• I can describe and identify goods vs. services.
• I can define and identify consumers and producers.

Literature

• I can ask and answer questions (who, what, when, why, where).
• I can locate information/details in a text.
• I can refer to text for answers.
• I can synthesize information from a text in order to answer questions about the text.
• I can identify the main idea and key details in the story.
• I can identify the lesson or moral of a fable, folktale or myth.
• I can determine what the author’s message is in a text.
• I can identify the theme of a story by identifying key details and ideas.
• I can determine the author’s message using context clues.
• I can understand the sequence of events in a story.
• I can identify the characters in a story.
• I can describe the traits, motivations, and emotions of the characters in a story.
• I can explain how the characters’ actions contribute to the story.
• I can distinguish between words, phrases, and sentences.
• I can determine word and phrase meaning through context.
• I can distinguish between literal and nonliteral language.
• I can understand differences between the story, drama, and poem and their parts (chapter, scenes, stanza).
• I can use vocabulary particular to each genre when speaking and writing.
• I can describe how each part builds upon earlier sections when discussing or writing about story, drama, or poems.
• I can identify an author’s point of view in a text.
• I can distinguish between first person and third person narratives.
• I can distinguish between one’s own point of view and others.

Reading: Informational Texts

• I can form and ask questions.
• I can understand the details in the text.
• I can answer questions that demonstrate understanding such as who, what, when, where and why.
• I can refer to text for answers.
• I can find the main idea of informational text.
• I can recount the key details.
• I can explain how the key details support the main idea.
• I can describe relationships.
• I can identify historical events and scientific ideas.
• I can sequence steps in a procedure.
• I can use the language of time, such as: long ago, in this decade, century, in the future.
• I can use the language of cause and effect.
• I can understand “series of events” and “steps in a procedure.”
• I can describe the impact an early event had on something that happened later in the text.
• I can understand that words may have multiple meanings.
• I can use root words, Latin and Greek suffixes and prefixes, to determine the meaning of academic words used in science, history/social studies.
• I can understand that words may be used as figurative language.
• I can use antonyms and synonyms as clues to find the meaning of grade level words.
• I can understand basic keyboarding skills.
• I can understand internet usage.
• I can determine relevant information.
• I can understand the importance of keywords.
• I can demonstrate understanding of the author’s intent.
• I can determine information from the text.
• I can look for language or ideas expressing what the author believes about the information he/she is presenting.
• I can understand who is speaking.
• I can express my own thoughts about the information I read.
• I can understand maps and legends.
• I can understand the importance of pictures and how they relate to text.
• I can understand that informational text gives the where, when, why, and how events occur.
• I can understand that key information is found in the graphics that accompany the text.
• I can explain what I learned from the text.
• I can identify facts and details the author has cited as evidence to support his points.
• I can identify how one sentence is connected to the sentence before and after it.
• I can understand how a concept continues from one paragraph to another.
• I can understand cause and effect.
• I can understand comparisons.
• I can understand the importance of sequencing.

Language and Grammar

• I can apply the rules that cover common grammar.
• I can understand subject/verb agreement.
• I can recognize and write simple, compound, and complex sentences.
• I can understand comparatives and superlatives.
• I can understand the use of quotation marks to show that someone is speaking or quoting from the text.
• I can understand the use of commas in dialog.
• I can identify complete sentences and independent clauses.
• I can understand the use of capital letters at the beginning of a sentence, titles, and proper names.
• I can use spelling patterns, word roots, affixes, and syllable construction.
• I can use dictionaries or digital media to look for the correct spelling of a word.

Writing

• I can write in a sequential manner.
• I can understand why I am writing.
• I can understand for whom I am writing.
• I can understand how the writing moves from beginning to end, or introduction to conclusion.
• I can understand the writing purposes such as: writing to persuade, to inform, and to entertain.
• I can recognize and use organizational structures such as: chronological order, cause and effect, etc.
• I can organize thoughts and ideas.
• I can use brainstorming, webs, clusters to help generate ideas before writing.
• I can seek guidance from peers to help add language and ideas to writing.
• I can ask adults for help in revising or editing.
• I can understand and use grammar and spelling conventions.
• I can edit for word usage and word choice to help strengthen details.
• I can revise sentences and/or paragraphs for clarity.
• I can use basic keyboarding skills.
• I can use the toolbar functions: bold, underline, font style, font size, set margins, and page orientation.
• I can use a system for saving and storing work until it is ready for publishing.
• I can use internet tools such as: search engines (Google, Bing), online dictionaries and thesaurus, spell and grammar check.
• I can use programs such as Word, PowerPoint, and Publisher.
• I can use print commands.
• I can work with others.
• I can select a topic to be researched.
• I can use reference materials such as: encyclopedias, atlas, search engines or databases.
• I can use keywords for searching a topic.
• I can summarize information.
• I can use graphic organizers or Thinking Maps to move logically through the research project.
• I can use organizational structures that are used when writing a research report.
• I can cite print and internet sources.
• I can use search engines such as Google, Bing, etc.
• I can use a library to locate print resources such as: encyclopedias, magazines, and books.
• I can summarize information.
• I can organize information.
• I can sort information by categories.
• I can use note-taking strategies such as: index cards, notebooks, graphic organizers, or Thinking Maps.

Physical Science

• I can ask questions based on observations about why objects in darkness can be seen only when illuminated.
• I can plan and conduct a controlled investigation to determine the effect of placing objects made with different materials in the path of a beam of light.
• I can develop a model to describe that light reflecting from objects and entering the eye allows objects to be seen.

Earth and Space Science

• I can record observations of the sun, moon, and stars and use them to describe patterns that can be predicted.
• I can organize and electronically present collected data to identify and describe patterns in the amount of daylight in the different times of the year.
• I can gather information and communicate how Minnesota American Indian Tribes and communities and other cultures use patterns in stars to make predictions and plans.

Life Science

• I can plan and conduct an investigation to determine how amounts of sunlight and water impact the growth of a plant.
• I can develop multiple models to describe how organisms have unique and diverse life cycles but all have birth, growth, reproduction, and death in common.
• I can construct an explanation using evidence from various sources for how the variations in characteristics among individuals of the same species may provide advantages in surviving, finding mates, and reproducing.
• I can construct an argument about strategies animals use to survive.
• I can obtain information from various types of media to support an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.

Art

• Identify the elements of visual art including color, line, shape, texture and space.
• Identify the tools, materials and techniques from a variety of two- and three-dimensional media such as drawing, printmaking, ceramics or sculpture.
• Create original two- or three-dimensional artworks to express ideas, experiences or stories.
• Revise an artwork based on the feedback of others.

Music

• Identify the elements of music including melody, rhythm, harmony, dynamics, tone color, texture, form and their related concepts.
• Read and notate music using a system of notations such as solfege, numbers or symbols.
• Sing and play with accurate pitch, rhythm and expressive intent.

• Perform locomotor skills (hopping, skipping, running, galloping, and leaping) while maintaining balance.
• Balance on different bases of support, demonstrating muscle tension and extensions of free body parts.
• Perform manipulative skills (throwing, catching, dribbling, rope-jumping) while maintaining balance.