Third Grade Course of Study

We will continue with our schedule of 7 sets of 6 weeks. It continues to work really well for us. Here's how it works:

• The first week of each set is called the "Planning Week". During it I plan the following five weeks of school work in detail (what we will do in each subject each day), we play a review game each day, we read a book together, and finish up any projects that did not get finished during the previous set.
• Then we have our five weeks of regular learning. On days we have Fine Arts, our schooling takes about four hours. We do this in one hour or half-hour segments. Sometimes we have one-and-a-half hour segments, but never longer than that.

BIBLE

We are using various things that I have downloaded (for free) over the past few years. Below are some resources that will will use throughout the year, but a lot will just be listed in the blog posts.

Resources:

• Window on the World
• The Princess and the Kiss

Bible Memorization:

• Romans 12:9-21
• Psalm 91
• The Romans Road
• Romans 3:23
• Romans 6:23
• Romans 5:8
• Romans 10:9-10
• Romans 5:1

MATH
Resources:

• Professor Pig
• Right in Your Own Backyard
• Family Math
• Magical Math series by Lynette Long
• Bedtime Math

Goals for Sets 1 - 7:

• Every day
• Number Theory
• Counting
• Two Weeks
• Addition
• Subtraction
• Calculators
• Fractions
• Decimals
• Two Weeks
• Multiplication
• Division
• Algebra Readiness
• Estimation
• Geometry
• Measurement
• One Week
• Problem Solving
• Statistics and Graphs

READING
Resources:

• Various books published by Harr Wagner Publishing Company in the 1950s
• Tell and Draw Stories
• Read for the Fun of It
• Games with Books
• Nature Friend Magazine

Goals for Sets 1 - 7:

• Two days a week K. reads to me from a book, working on comprehension.
• Three days a week we work on Story Telling
• Each week she reads two articles from Nature Friend aloud, and one silently.

GRAMMAR
Resources:

• Grammarland by M. L. Nesbitt
• Painless Junior Grammar by Marciann McClarnon

SPELLING

Resource:

• BJU's Spelling for Christian Schools 3

Goals for Sets 1 - 6:

• We will complete one spelling unit each week, omitting the review lessons (6, 12, 18, 24, 30, 36).

Goal for Set 7:

• We will work only on Climbers (words K. has problems spelling, or wants to learn to spell).

FINE ARTS

Goals:

• Make and mail birthday and anniversary cards to family members (over 60 people)
• Complete one sewing/craft project during each Set
• Complete one art project from Nature Friend during each Set
• Attend two ballets
• One page from the set of piano books each week
• Read Fairy Tales -- ones from other countries that we have never read before

WRITING
Resources:

• Cursive Writing Made Easy and Fun
• Young Novelist Workbook

Goals for Sets 1 - 7:

• Learn to write in cursive
• Two writing projects each Set
• Novel during Sets 6 and 7

SCIENCE

Resource:

• Nature Friend magazine

Goals for Sets 1 - 7:

• We will work through one Nature Friend magazine each week, reading the articles and completing activities, such as crossword puzzles.
• Each week K. will pick one topic from the magazine to learn more about.
• We will pick up a book from the library about the topic. We may also use the Internet.
• During the planning week, following a set of weeks, K. will pick one of the topics she has read more about and do a project on the subject.
• During Set 7, we will only read a magazine the first three weeks, so K. can complete a project before the end of the set.

HISTORY
Resources:

• A Child's History of the World by Hillyer
• George Washington's World by Genevieve Foster
• Abraham Lincoln's World by Genevieve Foster
• California Weekly Explorer

Goals:

• Time Period: 1781 through 1865 (end of American Revolution through Lincoln's assassination)
• World History
• American History
• California History part 1, Weekly Explorers 1 - 17

Third Grade, Bible , Set Seven

Hymns

• Come Ye Thankful People, Come
• Rock of Ages
• Thy Word is like a Garden
• Holy, Holy, Holy
• Fairest Lord Jesus

Bible Memory

• Romans 5:8
• Romans 6:23
• Romans 10:9-10
• Romans 5:1

We practiced presenting the Wordless Book to a friend.

Catechism

• Learned #47, 48, 49
• Reviewed Catechism each week

Prayer

• Countries/People
• Gypsies
• Haiti
• Hezaro
• Herrero
• Hui

Read-Aloud

• Books from our shelf

The Princess and The Kiss

• We completed the Life Lessons book and we had a very simple "ceremony" and gave K. the necklace that goes with the book.

Third Grade, Math, Set Seven

We mostly worked on division and maps, completing the book, Map Skills: Neighborhood and Communities.

Third Grade, Reading, Set Seven

We read pages 119 - 152 in Long Ago Stories of California.

We read the book, Clipper Ship, by Thomas P. Lewis and worked through a study guide. The book gave good information, but (although K. didn't complain) I thought the book was poorly written and boring.

Third Grade, Grammar, Set Seven

I printed out some worksheets to work on:

• Common and Proper Nouns
• Verb Tenses
• Action and Linking Verbs
• Helping Verbs
• Verb "To Be"
• Pronouns I and Me
• Prepositions

We also worked through a test taking skills book.

Third Grade, Writing, Set Seven

We finished learning the capital letters in cursive.

K. started writing her novel. She did not complete it, but what she wrote was really good and she did really well keeping to the plot she wrote in Set Six.

Third Grade, Spelling, Set Seven

We worked on learning the meanings of prefixes and suffixes. Some of the prefixes were in the dictionary, but for others and the suffixes, I just told K. the meanings. We started a notebook with one page for each prefix and suffix. I'm hoping we can add more words to the notebook in fourth grade.

Third Grade, Science, Set Seven

We did some different things during this set.

1. We completed the last three Nature Friend magazines.
2. We watched a pumpkin rot.
• First, we carved it and let a candle burn in it for six (or so) hours.
• Then we put it outside by our compost pile.
• We put an un-cut pumpkin by it for our control
• Each day K. journaled the progress of its decomposition.
3. We learned about Thomas Edison.
• I had a study guide/activity book that went with a video about Edison.
• We watched the video and completed selected sections of the book.
4. We learned about the Galapagos Islands.
• In Clipper Ship (see Reading) they mentioned the Galapagos Islands, so I thought it would be fun to learn more about them.
• Here are the books we read:
• Galapagos Islands by Cynthia Kennedy Henzel
• Into Wild Galapagos by Jeff Corwin
• A Galapagos Island Food Chain by Rebecca Hogue Wojahn
• We're Off . . . to the Galapagos by Michael Mastorakis
• "Galapagos" Means "Tortoises" by Ruth Heller
• We're Sailing to Galapagos: A Week in the Pacific by Laurie Krebs

Third Grade, History, Set Seven

We completed Abraham Lincoln's World.

We read chapters 7 and 8 in Industrial Revolution.

We completed two more lessons in California History, learning about the founding of the San Gabriel and San Luis Obispo Missions.

We read chapter 80 in Child's History.

We added West Virginia and Nevada and Presidents Lincoln and Johnson to our American History notebook.

Here are the other books we read:

Women's Rights:

• Elizabeth Leads the Way by Tanya Lee Stone -- picture book biography about Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
• Bloomers! by Rhoda Blumberg -- story about how bloomers came to be worn.

Civil War:

• The Silent Witness by Robin Friedman -- picture book about the McLean family, who lived on a plantation overlooking Bull Run Creek. After the battle of Bull Run, they moved to Appomattox Court House. Lee surrendered to Grant in their parlor. This is a true story.
• Seven Miles to Freedom: The Robert Smalls Story by Janet Halfmann -- this is a picture book with the story of Robert Smalls, a slave who piloted a Confederate ship seven miles to Union territory with his crew, their families, and cannons. There are several different books written about Robert Smalls and his heroic actions.
• Robert Smalls Sails to Freedom by Susan Taylor Brown -- this is an "On My Own History" book
• The Battle Of Gettysburg: Would You Leat the Fight? by Elaine Landau -- this book takes you step by step through events of the battle and then asks what would you have done?
• B is for Battle Cry: A Civil War Alphabet by Patricia Bauer -- this book is nice because it has a short poem about each letter (good for younger children) and off to the side it gives more detailed information. It also has great illustrations.
• Brown Paper School USKids History: Book of the American Civil War  by Howard Egger-Bovet -- Discover your history through stories, games, and activities
• Hold the Flag High by Catherine Clinton -- about the Massachusetts Fifty-fourth Regiment's fight at Fort Wagner

People:

• Thomas Alva Edison: Miracle Maker by Mervyn Kaufman
• Clara Barton: Soldier of Mercy by Mary Catherine Rose
• Harriet Tubman by Catherine Nichols
• Clara and Davie by Patricia Polacco
• A Picture Book of Thomas Alva Edison by David A. Adler
• A Picture Book of Robert E. Lee by David A. Adler
• Mathew Brady by Leni Dolan -- K. asked if some pictures we were looking at were really from the Civil War, so I pulled this book out and we looked through it.
• Stonewall Jackson's Black Sunday School by Rickey E. Pittman -- about the Sunday School Jackson started in Lexington for slave and free blacks. It then goes on to tell about the Civil War and Jackson's death.
• Ben and the Emancipation Proclamation by Pat Sherman -- a story of Benjamin C. Holmes, a slave who taught himself to read.
• Pasteur's Fight Against Microbes by Beverly Birch -- story of how Louis Pasteur learned about microbes.

Miscellaneous:

• The Pony Express by Cynthia Mercati

Books for Older Children:

• Stonewall by Jean Fritz
• You Want Women to Vote, Lizzie Stanton? by Jean Fritz
• Abraham Lincoln for Kids: His Life and Times with 21 Activities by Janis Herbert
• Louis Pasteur by Liz Miles
• From Slavery to Freedom by Melinda Lilly -- this book is actually for YOUNGER children
• The Great Civil War Draft Riots by Deborah Kent

Books we Didn't Get To:
There are so many books available about the Civil War, and I brought a whole shelf full of them home from the library so I'd have them available, if we wanted them.

• Welcome to Addy's World 1864: Growing Up During America's Civil War The American Girls Collection
• When Harriet met Sojourner by Catherine Clinton
• Gettysburg by Catherine Reef
• Graphic Battles of the Civil War Series (written in graphic format)
• The Monitor Versus The Merrimac by Dan Abnett
• The Battle of Antietam by Larry Hama
• The Battle of The Wilderness by Dan Abnett
• The Battle of First Bull Run
• The Battle of Shiloh
• The Battle of Gettysburg
• The Civil War Library by Carin T. Ford
• Daring Women of the Civil War
• African-American Soldiers in the Civil War
• The Battle of Gettysburg and Lincoln's Gettysburg Address
• The American Civil War
• Buffalo Soldiers and the Western Frontier by Emily Raabe
• Children of the Civil War by Candice F. Ransom
• Ulysses S. Grant by BreAnn Rumsch
• William Tecumseh Sherman by Don McLeese
• Philip Sheridan by Dynise Balcavage
• What Was the Battle of Gettysburg? by Jim O'Connor -- this book also has photos and one or two page biographical sketches of main figures. It looks really good.
• The Story of Sherman's March to the Sea by Zachary Kent -- this is a Cornerstones of Freedom book
• You Wouldn't Want to be a Nurse During the American Civil War! by Kathryn Senior
• The Civil War by Sally Senzell Isaacs
• Eyewitness Civil War by John Stanchak

Third Grade, Fine Arts, Set Seven

We continued making birthday and anniversary cards for our family.

Third Grade, Bible, Set Six

Hymns:

• Give of Your Best to the Master
• Now I Belong to Jesus
• Tell Me the Story of Jesus

Bible Memory

• we used the Verse Strips to review a passage each day during this set of weeks

Games

• I found the book, Games for Bible Discovery, by Monte Corley and Roy Nichols. I made some of the games to help us review facts about Moses, Abraham, and other Bible stories.
• We played Bible Order, which is like Rack-O, but with the books of the Bible. This is a very old game, and I don't think it is available anywhere, but if you have Rack-O stands, you can make cards with the names of the books of the Bible on them.

Catechism

• Learned #44, 45, 46
• Reviewed catechism each week

Prayer:

• Countries/Peoples
• Garifuna
• Gonds
• Greece
• Greenland
• Guinea-Bissau

Read-Aloud

• Short and Sweet by Katherine Loop
• Other books from our "Bible Shelf"

The Princess and The Kiss

• Lesson 21 in Life Lessons -- God wants you to pass on a godly heritage.
• The activity we did was to trace around one of our feet and then to write names of people we know who follow Jesus. People we can look to as good examples to follow. (1 Corinthians 11:1)

Third Grade, Math, Set Six

We worked through the book, Safari Adventure, by Deborah Underwood. This book takes you on a safari in Africa to make graphs from the data they give you. It was a fun way to do more work with graphing. The last two graphs are made on the computer, using Create a Graph.

I printed out some work pages to practice:

• reading time
• drawing time
• calculating elapsed time
• using a calendar

We completed more pages in Map Skills Made Fun: Neighborhoods and Communities.

We started practicing our skip count sheets out of order.

In geometry:

• we made flat and solid shapes of clay
• we reviewed what a polygon is, and made a poster
• we reviewed edge, vertex, and face, using signs and counting them on our clay shapes

 

• we cut a shape out of the clay with a cookie cutter and practiced: slide, flip, and turn

Third Grade, Reading, Set Six

We read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. We had one book, but I thought it would be nice if we each had our own to read from, so I picked one up from the library. It had larger type and some of the original pictures in it, and K. enjoyed using it. I had a study guide for the book, put out by World for Learning. I picked a few things from it for us to do:

• Vocabulary
• Comprehension
• Recipes - Poppyseed Muffins and a Rainbow Cookie (below)
• Cinquain Poem
• Venn Diagram comparing the book and the movie
• L. Frank Baum: Author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Carol Greene -- this is a Rookie Biography and was very interesting and added to our reading the book.

We have decided to use The Wonderful Wizard of Oz for our Book Day on October 31. We already had a Scarecrow and have made a Tin Man. I'm not sure if we will try to make a Lion or not. I'm working on a Dorothy costume for K. We are going to cut flowers out of tissue paper to make our dining room into poppy fields. We are still working on our menu. Book Days are lots of fun!

Third Grade, Grammar, Set Six

Since we completed the work I had planned for this school year in Set Five, I did not schedule anything for Grammar in this set. This also allowed us more time for Writing.

Third Grade, Writing, Set Six

We continued learning the upper case cursive letters.

We started the Young Novelist Workbook. This is the third year we have done this program, and I am getting better at allotting the time needed and in presenting the work. K. is getting better at coming up with ideas and answering the questions.

This year I decided to print out the entire workbook in sections, but have K. write in a spiral notebook so I don't have to print the workbook again.

We started with the "Create Awesome Characters" section. We spent two weeks developing the main character, supporting character, and villain.

The next two weeks we worked on the "Make Up Your Story" and "Outline Your Plot" sections.

When K. was bogged down with the plot, we took a couple days to complete the "How to Write Really Good Dialogue" section.

The last we we worked on the "Map Your Setting" section.

Third Grade, Spelling, Set Six

We finished the last five units of the spelling book, making sure K. knew how to spell the words, was familiar with the spelling generalizations, and completing the skills activities.

Third Grade, Science, Set Six

Along with reading Nature Friend Magazines, we completed about five work pages from the Long Beach Aquarium. We went there on their homeschooler's day. I had printed out these papers to do while we were there, but we were too busy enjoying ourselves to do them then. I decided we could do them as well after our visit, using the Internet to find answers to questions we didn't know. It was actually fun, and made the experience last longer and we learned more.

K. was sick during our week off, so I decided not to insist on her doing a project.

Third Grade, History, Set Six

From Abraham Lincoln's World, we read pages 210 - 283.

We added presidents Taylor, Fillmore, Pierce, and Buchanan, along with the states of California, Minnesota, Oregon, and Kansas to our American History notebooks.

We completed two more lessons of California History, learning about the desert plants, animals, and the Chemehuevi Indians.

We read chapter six in Industrial Revolution.

Here are other books we enjoyed:

Women's Suffrage

• The Ballot Box Battle by Emily Arnold McCully -- a picture book story about Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
• If You Lived When Women Won Their Rights by Anne Kamma -- this book is mostly about the years 1848 to 1920.

The West

• Wagon Trains and Settlers by Ellen H. Todras -- we did not read all of this book. Each page is stuffed with information. It will be a good book to get again. Some topics it covers are: Manifest Destiny, outfitting a wagon, daily routines on the trail, major trails, and settling in the West.
• Projects About Westward Expansion by Marian Broida -- this book lets you travel to Kentucky in 1788, along the Oregon Trail around 1850, and visit homesteads in Nebraska in 1885. This is a fun quick book to read because it has so many projects.

California Gold Rush

• The Legend of Freedom Hill by Linda Jacobs Altman -- a picture book about two girls, Rosabel and Sophie, who find gold to buy the freedom of Rosabel's mother after the slave catcher finds her.
• The California Gold Rush by Mel Friedman -- this is part of the "A TRUE Book" series. It has lots of illustrations and is well written and understandable for children.
• Life During the Gold Rush by Janey Levy -- this book covered a few things that the previous book didn't, so I just read those pages to K.
• Treasure in the Stream by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler -- a story about a farming family whose daughter finds gold in a stream on their property.
• Bronco Charlie and the Pony Express by Marlene Brill -- this book is in the On My Own History series. Relates how, in 1861, a boy named Charlie Miller became the youngest rider for the Pony Express.

Pony Express

• They're Off! The Story of the Pony Express by Cheryl Harness -- tells the why and how of the Pony Express, with great illustrations, including maps. It even has a list of all the Pony Express riders. It gives details of the first rides east and west along with other highlights, such as Bob Haslam's 380 mile ride during the Paiute war. Ends with the end of the Pony Express, just two days after the telegraph line was completed to the west coast.
• Off Like the Wind! The First Ride of the Pony Express by Michael P. Spradlin -- this book has a day by day account of the first ride east and west.
• Hoofbeats of Danger by Holly Hughes -- this is in the American Girl History Mysteries series. This was a fun book to read as a family. It was very exciting and educational.

People:

• Who Was Abraham Lincoln? by Janet B. Pascal -- this is a well written chapter book for children. I read it, then had K. read it on her own. It tells about his entire life, but over half the book in on his presidency and the Civil War.
• The Brontes: Scenes from the childhood of Charlotte, Branwell, Emily, and Anne by Catherine Brighton -- delightful picture book with good information about their childhood
• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte -- the one we read was in the Treasury of Illustrated Classis series. It was adapted by Sara Thomson and Illustrated by Richard Lauter.
• John Charles Fremont: Western Pathfinder by Barbara Witteman -- interesting biography written for fourth grade and up.
• How to Draw the Life and Times of Zachary Taylor by Roderic Schmidt -- interesting information about our twelfth president.
• John Brown by Tom Streissguth -- this is an On My Own Biography book. It contains lots of illustrations and presents the facts of John Brown clearly, without condemning or condoning.
• Florence Nightingale by Shannon Zemlicka -- this is from the On My Own Biography series. It is well written, covering her life in good detail, with lots of illustrations.
• Florence Nightingale . . . and a new age of nursing by Sarah Ridley -- we read this book first. It is for younger children and gives the basic facts of Florence's life in an interesting manner. The other book fills in more details. This book has a timeline throughout, showing events in her life and the world.
• My Tour of Europe by Theodore Roosevelt -- this is a picture book about Teddy Roosevelt's tour of Europe when he was 10 years old (1869).

Books for Older Children:

• Annie Quinn in America by Mical Schneider -- this is a really good book. I read it and enjoyed it tremendously! It is about a family in Ireland, who are poor and hungry due to the potato famine; how they get to America and their adventures (sometimes sad) on the journey and in America.
• Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun by Rhoda Blumberg -- this book has lots of illustrations, and looks interesting for a high school student.
• Charlotte Bronte and Jane Eyre by Stewart Ross -- although it has many illustrations, it also has lots of text.
• Young Man in a Hurry: The Story of Cyrus W. Field by Jean Lee  Latham -- this book is the story of the man who "... was just the man that -- well -- held things together." and after thirteen years, the transatlantic cable was successfully laid.

Books we didn't have time to get to:

• 1848: Year of Revolution by R.G. Grant
• The Charge of the Light Brigade by Alfred Lord Tennyson
• You Wouldn't want to sail on an Irish Famine Ship! by Jim Pipe
• Gold! Gold from the American River! by Don Brown

Third Grade, Fine Arts, Set Six

Here are a couple birthday cards we made.

We are also continuing to creep forward in piano.

Third Grade, Bible, Set Five

Hymns:

• Reach Out to Jesus
• Crown Him With Many Crowns
• The Wonder of it All
• Glory for Me
• Have You Room for Jesus?

Bible Memory:

• Psalm 91:5 - 16
• Reviewed passges with Verse Strips

Project:

• Fort Faithful -- based on Psalm 91

Catechism:

• Learned #41, 42, 43
• Reviewed previously learned

Prayer:

• Countries/Peoples
• Druzes
• Egypt
• Ethiopia
• Falashas
• Fiji

Read-Aloud:

• Swiss Family Robinson in Words of one Syllable
• Picks from our Bible shelf

The Princess and the Kiss

• Lesson 20 in Life Lessons -- purity is not just a gift a woman can give to her husband; it is a way to honor the Lord. We are to be pure in body, heart, and mind.