Language Arts
Students learn to read with ease and understanding through a literature-based program. Emphasis is placed on fostering the enjoyment of reading and an interest in the analysis of literature, recognition of writing styles and comprehension of content. Children practice reading aloud fluently and with expression. Vocabulary is developed through literature and a vocabulary program. Word attack skills and strategies continue to be reinforced through expanded phonics and spelling skill work. The spelling program stresses regular and irregular patterns of spelling in lessons and with application to daily work. Students in the Early Intervention program continue the structured phonics program designed to meet the individual needs of each member of the group.

Students identify the main idea and details in a paragraph and sequence events in a story. They practice rules of grammar and punctuation in daily exercises and in their own written work. Dictionary skills are taught and practiced. Particular emphasis is placed on the research process and the use of webbing techniques. In the writing lab, students edit and revise their written work. In the library, students use reading materials to gain information, become familiar with the library as a resource center, and learn to use computer technology to locate information.

Mathematics
Third graders continue to work with the Everyday Mathematics program. Students learn to increase their skills by using patterns, place value, fractions and decimals in addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division with a focus on logic and problem solving skills. A study of weight, measure, and time is also included in the curriculum. The program allows for the use of many kinds of manipulatives. Each student is given a tool kit containing play money, rulers, counting chips, calculator, and cards for playing number games. Most lessons begin with concrete manipulative activities from which the students are then invited to develop abstract theories and formulas. The “Super Stars Program” and math pull-out groups help meet the individual needs of the students.

Social Studies
The first few months of Social Studies in third grade are spent studying the American pioneers. Through the use of the book, A Pioneer Sampler, students follow the Robertson family through the hardships and joys of rural life in the 1840’s. Through interesting stories and fun activities provided in the text, students learn about surviving the winter, making maple syrup, milking cows, shearing sheep, harvesting crops and other aspects of pioneer life.

There are field trips to reinforce the information the students are learning in the classroom. The students visit Bethabara Park, one of Winston-Salem’s earliest settlements and tour the excavations and restorations there to learn about the lives of the Moravians who founded the settlement. The culmination of our pioneer unit is Pioneer Day, a day spent at a cabin near Stone Mountain State Park. Students and their parents, dressed as pioneers, gather in Traphill, NC to participate in activities such as buttermaking, candlemaking and quilting. They learn about pioneer medicine, experience a one-room schoolhouse and enjoy stew cooked over an open fire.

Students increase their knowledge of physical and cultural geography through the following themes: location, regions, movement and human environmental interaction. Students learn to identify absolute and relative location by learning directions, reading grids and locating sights by longitude and latitude. Hands-on activities are used to reinforce skills such as map reading and land form identification and to provide recognition of the elements which determine how people interact with their environment.

Science
The science curriculum continues to include a well-balanced combination of biology, earth science, and physical science. Students begin the year with a look at how living things grow and change. They have activities involving mealworms, seed germination, comparison of fungus/plants/animals, and leaf study. This helps them to better understand how organisms vary from group to group and how they develop and change over their life cycles. Following a study of the solar system, students study rocks and landforms (using experiments to discover how rocks are formed and how the Earth’s surface changes over time). Students return to biology with the study of the relationships of living things. This unit of study includes a trip to the North Carolina Zoo and an animal research project.

In Science Lab the material covered includes animal science, plant science, ecology/ecosystems, earth science (geology, sun/earth/moon inter-relationships), and physical science (energy, motion, forces, simple machines, and work). In the spring, students take part in the Animal Research project which incorporates a unit on library studies. It also includes trips to the Natural Science Center in Greensboro and SciWorks in Winston-Salem.

Art
Instruction in the art class continues to correlate with the teaching of other subject matter such as pioneer studies and animal research. Projects are assigned in various media such as painting, collage, printing, origami, clay, weaving, and drawing. Students also learn about famous artists whose style or technique is relevant to their studies.

Computer
Computer classes focus on keyboarding and word processing skills, as well as use of the Internet. They learn to access programs on the hard drive and to save properly on the desktop and external media. Children continue to use the Microsoft Word program. An integrated classroom curriculum uses various math programs and other software to improve math and social studies skills. In addition, problem solving skills are reinforced when teams of two or three students work together to trouble-shoot or to complete a robotics project.

Drama
Drama classes focus on movement, sensory awareness, exploration of feeling, concrete problem solving, and ethical reasoning. Creative imagination, cooperation, and social interaction are stressed. The curriculum area of Pioneers is the focus for the establishment of pioneering families and villages, with each child taking on the role of someone whose skills would have been needed in Early America.

In the spring, students combine their talents in drama, music, and dance to present a play for the school, parents, and friends. In recent years, our writer-in-residence has written an original play for the third graders.

Foreign Language
Third graders study one semester of French and one semester of Spanish. They review vocabulary through games, recitation and short listening quizzes. New vocabulary, songs, and numbers are introduced. Discussions center on the people, their culture, customs, and daily life in France and Spain or Mexico.

Guidance
The guidance curriculum centers on the following issues: self-esteem, social interaction, identity, appreciation of differences, safety, human development, problem solving and decision-making. A virtue is celebrated each month and culminates with a “visit’ from an historical or present-day figure who exemplifies that virtue.

Music
The music curriculum allows students to develop their singing voices, creative capacities and musical concepts through classroom activities and performances. Instruction is also provided for the recorder during which students learn basic playing technique and note reading. Students use their songs and dances for Pioneer Day. In the spring, students combine their musical and theatrical talents in a third grade performance.

Physical Education
Daily physical education classes provide appropriate instruction for building a healthy body, mind and character. Students participate in a planned, sequential, skill-based program. The program emphasizes motor skills, physical fitness, and good sportsmanship. Areas of concentration are fitness, basic movement, recreational dance, stunts, tumbling and gymnastics, games and sports.