Third Grade Curriculum

Third Grade Curriculum - Or What will Keep Anna and Andrew Out of Trouble

Yesterday I shared my choices for what Aaron would be learning this year.  Today I am sharing what the other two will learn.  I have always home schooled them together, for my own sanity, since they are so close in age.

Bible Lessons:

This year our Bible text will be from the Bible.  To support this we are using Hands-On History Activity Paks from Homeschool In the Woods. We will work our way through the Bible using both the Old Testament and New Testament activities to support our lessons.  Each Pak is sent on CD and you can run as many copies of each activity as needed for your family.  They activities when completed are complied in a lapbook.  The CD also includes writing activities for both Testaments, which we will not be using this year.  Also in some cases I found that a significant jump was made over a section of the Bible I wanted to cover so I will in some cases be adding additional notebooking and lapbooking activities.  I hope to keep you posted as we go on how these turn out.  So far the kids are loving the hands on activities.

Language Arts:

We will be completing our last year of phonics.  So as much as I am ready to switch to a whole book method of learning, we will do one more year of BJU reading.  This will reinforce their phonics skills and make sure their skills are strong before we move into more comprehension based work.  We are also using BJU english and spelling, as they all correspond.  Finally we have A Reason for Handwriting book C.  This is a full year of cursive, folowing last year's work on book T, or transition.


Math:

For math we are continuing our use of the Saxon program.  This year we are using Saxon math 3.




History:

A brief description of our study of the State of Michigan can be found here.

Science:

This year we are exploring the topics of earth Science.  We have chosen the you the God's Design series from Answers in Genesis.   The first book we are using is Our universe. Followed by Our Planet Earth, then Our Weather and Water.  This series can be used with multiple grade levels so some of the material may be a little above their heads so I keep reminding myself to adjust as we go.  However the thrill of learning about space had them excited for weeks, lol.  Again I added notebooking and lapbook activities to most of the lessons, as a way to help reinforce the lessons.  I am very excited with what is planned for this subject.



So far we have found that completing all our language arts and math work in the morning while I work with Aaron has worked well.  This allows me to focus on Bible, history and science in the afternoon, after Aaron is done for the day.  I can then lead discussions of the topics and help with all the projects, without having to stop and help Aaron with his work.

Hope you stop back to see how it goes,

Cassie