All Year
Thompson School District- 3rd Grade
Family Content Literacy Guide
 Use informal and formal communication to work successfully and cooperatively with others.
 Develop vocabulary to understand difficult readings.
 Use different strategies to make meaning of literacy books (stories, poems), informational texts (science
books, “how to” books), and persuasive pieces (movie reviews, speeches).
 Read with fluency to understand a variety of texts.
 Understand that prefixes and suffixes have meaning.
 Use a writing process to write a variety of stories, informational, and opinion pieces.
 Apply correct grammar, capitalization, punctuation, and spelling to effectively communicate to an audience
of readers.
Learning Targets:
Where in the World…
Cycles on Earth and
Space
What Brings Us Together?
**These science and social studies units may be taught in any order throughout the
school year and are integrated into literacy instruction.**
Students will:
 Ask and answer questions to better understand challenging readings.
 Evaluate an author’s point of view in a piece of writing.
 Make connections between two texts to see different points of view on
a topic.
 Write an opinion piece (movie and book reviews) with strong focus,
organization, and details.
 Identify the origins and structure of local government, including the
types of services provided by the local government.
 Demonstrate how the exchange of things made and services offered
benefits the community.
 Identify a short-term financial goal, including the steps necessary to
reach that goal.
 Demonstrate how to engage in discussions in a respectful manner.
 Summarize to better understand challenging readings.
 Compare key ideas and details between informational texts.
 Write about text by recalling details and relevant facts
 Write an opinion piece (movie and book reviews) with strong focus,
organization, and details.
 Gather, analyze, and interpret data about components of the solar
system, sunrise and sunset, and moon phases.
 Use evidence to investigate the components of the solar system.
 Develop scientific explanation for relationships in the solar system.
 Explore the connection between charts, photos, and captions in a text.
 Discuss readings or topics in a group setting.
 Write an information piece (brochure, “how to” writings, “I’m an
Expert On…) with strong focus, organization, and details.
 Find questions to research.
 Use sources to answer questions.
 Read and interpret maps to locate geographic features in the
community, state, neighboring states, and the world.
 Identify similarities and differences among places.
 Identify the factors that make a region unique, such as cultural
diversity, industry, agriculture, and landforms.
Key Concepts
Focusing
Lens
Interaction
Structure
Citizenship
Perspective
Order and
structure
among
citizens is
necessary to
create a
balanced
community.
Cycle
Patterns
Cause/Effect
Space
Patterns of
movement
help to
understand
the changes
in our solar
system.
Region
Attributes
Culture
Where we
live,
influences
how we live.
Updated 8/2015
Thompson School District- 3rd Grade
Family Content Literacy Guide
Learning Targets:
Food Chains and Webs
Blast From the Past
Astronomers in History
Measuring Matter
**These science and social studies units may be taught in any order throughout the
school year and are integrated into literacy instruction.**
Students will:
 Compare scientific ideas or steps in a text.
 Research a topic.
 Present (in writing or verbally) knowledge gained from research.
 Write an information piece (brochure, “how to” writings, “I’m an
Expert On…) with strong focus, organization, and details.
 Recognize that matter exists in different states such as solids, liquids,
and gases and matter can change from one form to another through
heating and cooling.
 Collect data to form and defend a conclusion.
 Demonstrate the importance of keeping accurate scientific
observations and notes.
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Recount stories.
Explore the connection between the words and illustrations in a text.
Make connections to better understand challenging readings.
Make personal connections to books, stories, and poems.
Write about books, stories, and poems to “think through” ideas.
Write real and imagined stories with focus, organization, and details.
Distinguish history facts from myths/fiction.
Create a chronological sequence of events.
Compare past and present situations and events.
Compare themes, characters, and setting.
Evaluate an author’s choice of words in a piece of writing.
Write about books, stories, and poems to “think through” ideas.
Write real and imagined stories with focus, organization, and details.
Use evidence to develop a scientific explanation regarding how
organisms develop and change over time.
 Analyze and interpret data to generate evidence that organisms
develop different over time.
Key Concepts
Focusing
Lens
Tools
Properties
Procedure
Accurate
measurement
and data
collection are
used to solve
problems.
Compare/
Contrast
Influence
Perspective
The past
influences the
development
and
interaction of
different
communities
or regions.
Our
understandin
g about space
has been
influenced by
the theories
and
contributions
of
astronomers
in the past.
Change
Interdependen
ce
Adaptations
Perspective
Living and
nonliving
things are
interdependent
within an
ecosystem.
Updated 8/2015