Third Grade

Objectives and Goals

SPIRITUAL LIFE

We endeavor to train students spiritually, academically, and personally. Northshore integrates faith and learning as we educate and equip the whole child. The entire process of education is used by the Holy Spirit to bring students into fellowship with God and in character development, so that they can experience God’s purpose for their lives personally and vocationally.

Bible

The students will learn a chronological study of the life of Christ, the early Church, and missions from the time of Paul to now. Students will be taught these concepts through the curriculum Purposeful Design, Grade 3 Bible. They will participate in a multi-sensory, activity-based Bible curriculum that allows each student to develop their own faith in Christ. Music and art are integrated into the lessons. As students develop a Christian worldview grounded in Scripture, it is our desire that students will also come to know and love our great God and choose Jesus to be Lord of their lives.

Bible Memorization

Students are encouraged to “hide God’s Word in their hearts” by memorizing a scripture passage each week, except the weeks students are working on memorizing their speech meet piece.

Chapel

One day each week, students attend Chapel with other classes. They enjoy worship through singing, Bible lessons, character trait awards, and student of the month awards. They are inspired to expand their faith and put into practice what they hear from guest speakers, who challenge them to live a Godly life.

Third Grade Teachers

At Northshore Christian Academy in the 3rd Grade Department, our students are blessed with incredible educators who have the high distinction of: over 51 years of experience teaching, 3 Masters Degrees, and are ACSI accredited and have Washington State Teaching Certificates. Our teachers feel called to be exemplary educators and come from diverse and prominent teaching backgrounds that equip them with the tools necessary to meet the needs of each of our students.

As a Christian school, located in Everett, WA, we have the pleasure of partnering with families, local schools and businesses to give our students a well-rounded education. Our program focuses not only on the exemplary academics and their spiritual development of each student, but also their social and emotional development. Our program diligently works to support each of our students in their scholarly and personally endeavors as it helps shape and mold them into thriving members of our community.

Through collaborative teamwork, facilitated by our Learner Centered Collaboration (LCC), our teachers are able to create an environment of dynamically different teaching styles and strategically consistent curriculum. This allows our teachers to successfully impact our students by supporting all different learning styles. Northshore’s teamwork approach in evaluating data, such as our standardized testing, helps our program continue to be at the forefront of producing students ready to lead the world.

ACADEMIC LIFE

Literacy

Program features an organized, multi-sensory, direct approach to teaching reading, writing, grammar, spelling and handwriting. Students learn to show that they can effectively use words to express God’s love to others through either the written or spoken word.

Spelling

Weekly lessons focus on a spelling strategy that describes a common spelling rule or feature. Lists are differentiated to meet student needs and help students see relationships among words. Students investigate and understand sounds, spelling and meaning relationships in words. Students are also held accountable for application of learned spelling rules and patterns in their writing assignments.

Writing/Handwriting

Through the C.I.A. writing block, students understand, recognize, and apply the process of writing by practicing and evaluating. Students will make an application through their writing of opinion pieces, informational texts, narratives, research, and journaling.

Handwriting: Students are taught cursive letter formation by practicing connections, slant, and spacing.

Reading: Third-grade students develop skills in oral reading fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension through various genres of literature and novels using C.I.A. strategies. By studying the different genres they identify and analyze characters, settings, and other elements of a story. Students learn to synthesize, determine importance, infer, ask questions, use fix-up strategies, monitor comprehension, create sensory images, make predictions, and access schema while reading. Students read and comprehend literature and informational text at the high end of the grade 3 text complexity band independently and proficiently.

Math

Students participate in higher-order and critical thinking with content that focuses on student inquiry, Math Talk, and modeling of examples with practice. Math Expressions has three components: focus, coherence, and rigor. Content is focused on the essential learning of core concepts for Mathematics. Program content is organized into meaningful progressions that connect key topics between the grade levels. Content is presented for students to gain a deep conceptual understanding, fluency with procedures, and the ability to apply their understanding to solve problems.

Social Studies

Social Studies is presented in third grade through the use of the Heritage Studies 3 text encompassing the history, geography, economics, culture and government of early America after the War of Independence with the establishment of the Constitution. The units follow chronologically with the American Frontier and Westward expansion. Geography covers the regions of the United States. It applies knowledge of God and Christian character throughout each unit.

Science

The students explore and experience a variety of areas within the field of science including life, physical, and earth sciences with a focus on the scientific process. Science is a year-long science program that integrates direct instruction, inquiry based instruction and differentiated instruction. Hands on science kits, technology resources and textbooks are used as learning tools. Sciences units include life science, earth science and physical science. Based on inquiry-rich content with a sequence of structured and supportive inquiry activities, the science curriculum provides materials for both students and teachers in print, video, and online. This method of developing scientific knowledge is called scaffold inquiry and is aimed at developing the independent investigative skills of the students through hands-on activities and through the use of text materials. Classroom science kits provide for hands-on activities designed to maximize the students’ time on exploration and data gathering provide the substance of the inquiry-driven investigations. Leveled Readers are used to differentiate instruction by providing at and above grade level material.

Specialists

Computers

With an ever changing world driven by continual technological advancements equipping our students with a firm foundation in technology education is essential. Our students are taught proper typing techniques, with lots of practice resulting in sharpened accuracy and speed. We strive to provide our students with current software applications relevant to their lives. Most importantly we provide an understanding of ethical issues surrounding the use of technology at school and elsewhere. We ensure our students are grounded with a Bible-based, Christian perspective. The focus of computers in third grade is to touch on computer ethics from a Christian perspective and to develop problem solving techniques. Typing skills will be practiced throughout the semester. This course covers a variety of software applications including Kid Pix and Kidspiration, and introduces students to Microsoft Office 2010 Word. Students will use these software applications for special assignments in their core subjects such as English, history, and science. Students will also be introduced to the Internet and safe searching techniques.

Library

Students learn the Dewey Decimal system, fiction, nonfiction and biography call numbers, and how to use dictionaries and encyclopedias. Poetry and fantasy genres are also covered.

Music

Grade 3 General Music is a year long class meeting two times per week for 30 minutes where we explore all aspects of music through listening, singing, reading, movement, and playing a variety of instruments. In third grade we give students the opportunity to specifically learn basic violin playing skills and knowledge. Students learn musical concepts, vocabulary, singing skills, and performance skills as well as music history and appreciation. They are exposed to a variety of musical genres as well as awareness of various instruments and their uses within those genres. Students are encouraged to use music as a form of communication in expressing their thoughts and feelings. Students are encouraged that music can be a powerful tool to communicate with God and about God. They are encouraged to develop their skills in order to do that more effectively and to bring honor and glory to God by doing it to the best of their abilities.

PE

The students will learn teamwork and sportsmanship and participate in a variety of athletic activities to facilitate the development of motor skills, coordination, and physical fitness. In addition, students will identify the importance of working as a member of a team and displaying good sportsmanship.

Spanish

All Spanish classes at Northshore are taught with a method called TPRStorytelling which uses four consecutive steps of language acquisition: hearing, speaking, reading and writing. Students hear and respond to new vocabulary, participate in building stories with that vocabulary and respond to questions with answers and discussion. They are soon able to add their own ideas in Spanish. Songs, games, and skits are all part of the system that has fluency in Spanish as its aim. During two half-hour classes per week students hear and act out stories in Spanish, sometimes adding ideas that are uniquely their own creation using the curriculum Cuéntame by TPRS publishing. They can answer questions and add their own endings. They are beginning to be able to express their own thoughts in Spanish. New vocabulary includes rooms and household objects, family, many verbs, numbers to 1000, want/don’t want, and learn Spanish worship songs and telling time.

Art

Students study seven famous artists each year such as: Picasso, van Gogh, Homer, Mondrian, and Escher. They study their artwork and techniques that have made their artwork world-renowned. Students learn art theory and techniques through hands-on art projects that build art skills using various mediums.

Engineering – Project Lead the Way

Project Lead the Way (PLTW) is the leading provider of rigorous and innovative Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education curricular programs used in elementary, middle, and high schools across the U.S. The program is set up in modules that follow the design process. Each 10-hour module is aligned to grade-level standards and incorporates the process of hands-on engineering. In third grade, Students are introduced to how aircraft vehicles fly while investigating the effects of balanced and unbalanced forces on the motion of an object. Students develop an understanding of how engineers work and are introduced to aspects of the aerospace engineering field. Students also learn sketching techniques, discover computer-aided design, and use basic descriptive geometry is a component of design and measurement to model their solutions. Using an engineering notebook and other forms of documentation, students document the process by which the design models and solve problems.