200 South Finley Ave
Basking Ridge, NJ 07920
908-766-4774
In Third Grade, the children will continue on their faith journey begun at home with their parents. Children will learn about the origins, characteristics, and work of the Church. Children will be taught the Liturgy and the Liturgical cycles of the year. Learning ways to love God and others will be explored, as they learn how to live the Great Commandment of Love. Children will learn to use the four basic kinds of prayer. They will learn how they can serve in their parish. Through acts of caring and generosity, children can spread the Good News of Jesus Christ. Our curriculum follows the Diocese of Metuchen’s guidelines which are aligned with National Benchmarks and Standards. Our Religion program is incorporated in every aspect of our school life.
The Third Grade Language Arts program continues to nurture and develop independent and higher level thinking readers and writers. Students will be exposed to different genres, including fiction, non-fiction, biography, poetry, fantasy, and dramatic arts. They will continue to enhance their listening and speaking skills. As established by the New Jersey State Education Standards, students will come to a better understanding of inference, author’s point of view, theme, and character development. Establishing the writing process will enable students to understand the importance of rewriting and editing to achieve a quality final product, across all subject areas.
In Third Grade, Math instruction will focus on four critical areas: developing an understanding of multiplication and division strategies; fractions; the structure of rectangular arrays and of area; and describing and analyzing two-dimensional shapes. Students will use a variety of activities including equal groups, arrays, and models to multiply and divide within 100. Students will be able to use model fractions to represent and compare fractions. Third Grade students will be able to solve problems involving measurement and represent and interpret data on a graph. Students will describe and compare properties of two-dimensional shapes.
The Third Grade Science Program is based on the guidelines set forth by the Next Generation Science Standards. The students will continue to explore how plants and animals grow and change, including similarities and differences of life cycles. They will develop an understanding that organisms have different inherited traits that can be affected by their environment which in turn affect their survival and reproduction. Students will learn about organisms of the past and compare them to the present. Students will develop an understanding about typical weather conditions expected during particular seasons. The Solar System is explored including finding how objects in space affect each other. Measurement of matter is explored. Students develop an understanding of magnetic interactions. Students will learn how energy can change.
In Third Grade, students continue to learn the basic concepts of government, citizenship, geography, economics, and history. Students will focus on explorers who developed our nation, and the study of continents and the oceans. Learning about segregation, the Civil Rights Movement, and the activists who helped create changes will give the students a better understanding of the United States. Children will learn about the commitment individuals made to make our nation better. They will also learn about the three branches of government and how they all work together to create our democracy.