Some of these are done in cooperative groups and others are worked on individually. The teachers have a variety of instructional techniques that they use to motivate and meet the needs of individual students. They integrate subjects to show how learning is related. It is the goal of the third grade team to make sure their students are well prepared to handle the challenges of moving on to the intermediate school. The third grade curriculum includes a comprehensive language arts program that focuses on helping students make the transition from learning to read to reading to learn.
Teachers use modeling to show students how to adjust to different types of reading material.
As with the other grades, they emphasize comprehending what is being read and offer suggestions for ways for students to determine if they are understanding what they are reading and strategies for what to do if they experience difficulties. Students share what they are reading in literacy circles, which also gives them the opportunity to practice their speaking and listening skills. The math curriculum includes a variety of new material while still reinforcing the computational skills that were learned in the previous grades. The story problems reflect real life situations that children can relate to and use in their daily lives. The math units include borrowing and carrying of numbers up to four digits, place value to one-hundred thousand, time, money, multiplication and division facts through ten, and fractions.