What's happening in class.....
What’s happening in writing and grammar?
September-October
Grammar
*Nouns-a word that names a person, place or thing. Students will need to be able to identify nouns in a sentence and the role that they play in writing.
EX: The cat was playing on the couch. Cat and couch are nouns in the sentence.
*Proper Nouns- a “special” or “unique” name of a person place or thing. These words should start with a capital letter.
EX: My cat Whiskers was running down Main Street. Whiskers and Main Street are proper nouns because they are the special names of the cat and the street.
Mechanics
*Capitalization/Punctuation-all sentences in 3rd grade should begin with a capital letter and end with the correct punctuation.
EX: The boy was walking down the hallway before school began.
Where are we going after school?
Writing
*Unit 1 The Writing Communtiy- During this unit, the students begin to see themselves as contributing members of a caring writing community. They hear and discuss examples of good writing and begin to learn about the writing practice of professional authors. They explore prewriting techniques and write freely in their writing notebooks about things that interest them. They learn cooperative structures that they will use throughout the year, as well as discussion prompts to help them listen and connect their comments during class discussions. Finally, they begin conferring with one another about their writing in a caring and responsible way.
*Unit 2 Narrative/Fiction- During six week unit, the students explore fiction writing and they draft, revise, and publish their own stories. By hearing different kinds of fiction and exploring the ways authors put stories together, the students learn how to integrate elements of character, setting, and plot into their own stories. They explore features of good fiction, including how characters are revealed through description, action and speech, and discover how well-crafted endings bring a story’s events to a close. They use temporal words and phrases to convey event order, and include interesting verbs and adverbs to make their writing dynamic. They learn important skills and conventions pertinent to fiction writing, such a punctuating dialogue and correcting run on sentences. They cultivate a relaxed and creative attitude toward their writing and continue to be contributing members of the classroom writing community.
November-December
Grammar
*Verb- action words. Students will need to be able to identify verbs in a sentence and the role that they play in writing.
EX: The girls raced down the basketball court quickly.
Mechanics
*Complete Sentences- All sentences need to have a subject (the “doer”) and a predicate (the “do”) to be a complete sentence. They also must start with a capital letter and end with the correct punctuation.
EX: My mom baked cookies this afternoon.
Subject Predicate
January - February
Grammar
*We will continue to review nouns, proper and common, as well as action verbs.
*Helping verbs- verbs that help the main verb
*EX- will go
*Pronouns- words that renames a noun
*Complete Sentences- All sentences need to have a subject (the “doer”) and a predicate (the “do”) to be a complete sentence. They also must start with a capital letter and end with the correct punctuation.
*Simple Sentences- a sentence that has one subject and one predicate.
*EX: The girls went to the movies.
*Dialogue- characters speaking in a text
*EX: Alexandra asked, "Would you like to play a game?"
"Would you like to play a game?" asked Alexandra.
Writing
*Fiction/Narrative: During six week unit, the students explore fiction writing and they draft, revise, and publish their own stories. By hearing different kinds of fiction and exploring the ways authors put stories together, the students learn how to integrate elements of character, setting, and plot into their own stories. They explore features of good fiction, including how characters are revealed through description, action and speech, and discover how well-crafted endings bring a story’s events to a close. They use temporal words and phrases to convey event order, and include interesting verbs and adverbs to make their writing dynamic. They learn important skills and conventions pertinent to fiction writing, such a punctuating dialogue and correcting run on sentences. They cultivate a relaxed and creative attitude toward their writing and continue to be contributing members of the classroom writing community.
March - April
Grammar
*We will continue to review nouns, proper and common, as well as action verbs.
*Helping verbs- verbs that help the main verb
*EX- will go
*Pronouns- words that renames a noun
*Complete Sentences- All sentences need to have a subject (the “doer”) and a predicate (the “do”) to be a complete sentence. They also must start with a capital letter and end with the correct punctuation.
*Simple Sentences- a sentence that has one subject and one predicate.
*EX: The girls went to the movies.
*Dialogue- characters speaking in a text
*EX: Alexandra asked, "Would you like to play a game?"
"Would you like to play a game?" asked Alexandra.
*Conjunctions join words or phrases.
*EX: and, but, or, nor
*Compound Sentences- Two complete sentences joined with a comma and a conjunction.
*EX: Sally was not feeling well, so she did not go back to school.
Writing
*Finishing fictional unit
*Opinion Unit: During this three week unit, the students read and write persuasive essays defending particular opinions as they explore elements of opinion writing. They brainstorm topics they have strong opinions about and each student selects an opinion to write about. The students learn it identify and audience and purpose for their essays, state their opinions and support them with reasons, and use transitional words and phrases to connect opinions with reasons.
