This overview is intended as a rough sketch of what the year will look like.
To do this the information will be in bullet form by trimester.
1st Trimester
READING/WRITING/SPELLING
READING: We will focus on genre types, their differences, strengths, authors and deal with questions that help us focus our comprehension skills, styles of note taking and ways of communicating. We will be doing two different book reports. In October we'll do a "Scrapbook" and in January we'll do a Book Jacket. In October we'll focus on Historical Fiction, January's focus: Adventure Survival, an author study, and in March we'll look at Mysteries. Our big Biography unit will begin in April with a focus of "What contribution to society did that person make?".
WRITING: Writing is embedded into all subject areas with focus on letter, research projects, reports, narrative and expository writing. We will look at advertising and write/analyze some ads. We also keep journals in science, math and reading.
SPELLING: This will be in various groups, arranged by a survey test where students are groups by their knowledge of phonemic rules for spelling, as demonstrated by their accuracy on the survey test. Words will be given each week where the students will be allowed to choose how they study for the words.
Math
CML: This is explained on the 3/4 web site. A short version is that the initials stand for Continental Math League, a Nationally organized problem solving league. Students will be given 4 problems a week to solve: 4th graders solve a minimum of 3, 3rd graders solve 2 problems. They may choose which problems they solve. They will rotate to their groups.
THURSDAY MATH: Students work with teachers to develop their math skills. They will rotate to be in their assigned groups. These groups are arranged by a survey test at the beginning of each unit: addition and subtraction; multiplication and division.
CLASS ROOM MATH: The rest of the math curriculum is carried out in the classroom by each teacher.
SCIENCE
Students will rotate to different 3/4 teachers where they will work on Plant classification, Water Unit, Electricity, Sound and Light, Mixtures and Solutions.
SOCIAL STUDIES
This year we'll look at Washington State: economically, historically, the government and geography. We will also hold Fairy Tale Trials as a way to look at laws and court system.