Instructional Support
Marking Period 1
Plants and Animals
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Interaction and changes in their environment of living organisms
Exchanges if materials with the environment of living organisms
Reproduction
Essentials for growth and development
Ecosystems and Change
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Needs of an organism to survive in their physical and living environment
Changes in ecosystems and how they affect life forms
Plant and animal life cycles
Adaptations for survival
Growth and Decline of organism populations
Marking Period 2
Water and Weather
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Sun’s energy
Weather changes
Basic weather instrument usage
Clouds and Forms of Precipitation
Water circulation on the Earth
Properties of water
Marking Period 3
Rocks, Soil and Minerals
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Fossils
Attributes of rocks and minerals
Earth materials
Marking Period 4
Solar System and Sky Patterns
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Objects, such as, the sun and moon have patterns of movement
Phases of the Moon
Force of gravity
Order of the planets from the sun
Science
Grade 3
Unit Title:
Suggested Timeline
Marking Period 1
Plants and Animals
Suggested Duration
15 – 25 days
Big Ideas
 Interaction and changes in their environment of living organisms
 Exchanges if materials with the environment of living organisms
 Reproduction
 Essentials for growth and development
Standards
5.3.4.A.1-Develop and use evidence based criteria to determine if an unfamiliar object is living or nonliving.
5.3.4.A.2-Compare and contrast structures that have similar functions in various organisms, and explain how those functions may be carried out by structures that have different
physical appearances.
5.3.4.B.1-Identify sources of energy in a variety of settings.
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Student Learning Objectives
Understand that although plants
and animals are different, they
also share common
characteristics.
Know the behavioral and
structural adaptations that allow
plants and animals to survive in
an environment.
Find similarities and
differences among plants.
Describe the life cycle of
plants.
Understand the needs of
animals, and their life cycle.
Know common and
distinguishing characteristics of
vertebrates and invertebrates.
Know the structural and
behavioral adaptations that
allow plants and animals to
survive in their environment.
Know that many characteristics
of an organism are inherited
from their parents, while others
are learned.
Standards Addressed
5.3.4.A.1
Suggested Student Experiences
Activities
Use Venn Diagram to show similarities and difference
between plants and animals.
Create a poster for a life cycle of a plant.
Grass seed and soil experiment (see teacher manual pg.
65D)
5.3.4.A.2
Assessments
Teacher created worksheet and assessments
End of the chapter assessments from manual
Data collected from classroom projects
5.3.4.B.1
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Suggested Resources / Materials
Brain Pop/ Brain Pop Jr.
United Streaming
Student Text Book/Teacher’s Manual
Scott Foresman experiment bins
Suggested Vocabulary:
System, deciduous, pollinate, coniferous, seed leaf,
germinate, seedling, fossil, extinct, trait, vertebrate,
larva, pupa, adaptation, inherited, migrate, hibernate
Science
Grade 3
Unit Title:
Ecosystems and Changes
Suggested Timeline
Marking Period 1
Suggested Duration
15 – 25 days
Big Ideas
 Needs of an organism to survive in their physical and living environment
 Changes in ecosystems and how they affect life forms
 Plant and animal life cycles
 Adaptations for survival
 Growth and Decline of organism populations
Standards
5.3.4.C.1-Predict the biotic and antibiotic characteristics of an unfamiliar organism’s habitat.
5.3.4.C.2-Explain the consequences of rapid ecosystem change and compare them to consequences of gradual ecosystem change.
5.3.4.D.1-Compare the physical characteristics of the different stages of the life cycle of an individual organism, and compare the characteristics of life stages among species.
5.3.4.E.1-Model an adaptation to a species that would increase the chances of survival, should the environment become wetter, dryer, warmer or colder over time.
5.3.4.E.2-Evaluate similar populations in an ecosystem with regard to their ability to thrive and grow.
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Student Learning Objectives
Know the Sun provides energy
for the Earth to have heat and
light which is needed for
organisms to stay alive and
grow.
Understand how animals
depend on plants for survival
and that the size of the
population is dependent upon
the available resources within a
community.
Distinguish between the
different types of ecosystems.
Explain how plants, animals
and protists interact and how
they use energy to transfer to
them through the food they eat.
Classify living things as either,
producers, consumers,
carnivores, herbivores and
omnivores.
Know how organisms with
similar needs in a climatic
region compete for resources.
Know the organisms are
growing, dying and decaying.
Standards Addressed
Suggested Student Experiences
Activities
Word Web graphic organizer for vocabulary terms
5.3.4.C.1
Student group activity to research different types of
ecosystems
5.3.4.C.2
5.3.4.D.1
5.3.4.E.2
Smart Board activities
Ipads
Student Text Book/Teacher’s Manual
Brain Pop/Brain Pop Jr.
United Streaming
Mobile to depict food web
Interdisciplinary
Use graph to track average rainfall in different
ecosystems around the world
Assessments
Student work
5.3.4.E.1
Suggested Resources / Materials
End of chapter assessments
Suggested Vocabulary:
Environment, ecosystem, community, population,
grassland, desert, tundra, wetland
Science
Grade 3
Unit Title:
Water and Weather
Suggested Timeline
Marking Period 2
Suggested Duration
30 – 40 days
Big Ideas
 Sun’s energy
 Weather changes
 Basic weather instrument usage
 Clouds and Forms of Precipitation
 Water circulation on the Earth
 Properties of water
Standards
5.4.4.E.1-Develop a general set of rules to predict temperature changes of Earth materials, such as water, soil, and sand, when placed in the Sun and in the shade.
5.4.4.F.1-Identify patterns in data collected from basic weather instruments.
5.4.4.G.1-Explain how clouds form.
5.4.4.G.2-Observe daily cloud patterns, types of precipitation, and temperature, and categorize the clouds by the conditions that form precipitation.
5.4.4.G.3-Trace a path a drop of water might follow through the water cycle.
5.4.4.G.4-Model how the properties of water can change as water moves through the water cycle.
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Student Learning Objectives
Recognize importance of water
to living things and know the
uses people derive from water
resources.
Know that approximately 75%
of the Earth’s surface is
covered by water.
Understand how water can
change forms and the stages of
the water cycle.
Understand ways to clean water
so it can be used again.
Describe the parts of weather
and ways people measure and
predict it.
Identify and evaluate ways
people affect weather through
their daily activities.
Describe ways weather depicts
natural patterns of change.
Compare severe types of
weather and evaluate methods
people use to protect
themselves from it.
Standards Addressed
Suggested Student Experiences
Water Activities:
Create a concept web of the water cycle with graphics
5.4.4.E.1
Conduct a cloud experiment with water, shaving cream
and blue food coloring
5.44.F.1
Suggested Resources / Materials
Smart Board activities
Ipads
Student Text Book/Teacher’s Manual
Brain Pop/Brain Pop Jr.
United Streaming
Make a chart with lists of ways that you can use water,
the ways in which it can used, and additional
information
5.4.4.G.1
5.4.4.G.2
Log in a Science Journal about what you were doing
when precipitation started and what was the result of
the precipitation?
Suggested Vocabulary:
Water vapor, groundwater, wetland, evaporation,
condensation, water cycle, precipitation
Weather, atmosphere, hurricane, tornado, blizzard
5.4.4.G.3
5.4.4.G.4
Weather Activities:
Complete a science experiment using soda bottles to
determine what a tornado looks like.
Create a concept web to help organize data about
weather using the subheadings of measuring weather,
weather patterns, and dangerous storms.
Work as a team to form expert groups about different
kinds of weather such as blizzard, tornado, hurricane
and present information to the class.
Water Interdisciplinary Connections:
Language Arts: Read nonfiction books about the water
cycle to help gather information to complete a group
project
Social Studies: Use maps to locate Antarctica and
Greenland, the locations of two major icecaps on Earth
and the source of icebergs. Encourage students to
research icebergs.
Weather Interdisciplinary Connections:
Compare temperatures using a table and answer
questions with the data collected.
Use a weather map to compare temperatures across the
United States – students can collect and record
information. Have students identify areas that have the
same temperatures.
Use a globe or world map to help identify the different
desert regions of the world. Discuss as a group.
Water and Weather Assessments:
Teacher created worksheet and assessments
Differentiated questions
End of the chapter assessments from manual
Data collected from classroom projects
Mathematics
Grade 3
Unit Title:
Rocks, Minerals and Soil
Suggested Timeline
Marking Period 3
Suggested Duration
30 – 40 days
Big Ideas
 Fossils
 Attributes of rocks and minerals
 Earth materials
Standards
5.4.4.B.1-Use data gathered from observations of fossils to argue whether a given fossil is terrestrial or marine to origin.
5.4.4.C.1-Create a model to represent how soil is formed.
5.4.4.C.2-Categorize unknown samples as either rocks or minerals.
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Student Learning Objectives
Compare different types of
rocks, explain how they are
formed and describe how they
explain life over a period of
time.
Recognize that fossils provide
evidence about the plants that
lived long ago.
Compare different kinds of
minerals and give examples of
ways in which minerals are
used.
Know that changes in the
Earth’s surface are due to slow
processes and some changes are
due to rapid processes.
Compare properties of different
kinds of soil.
Standards Addressed
5.4.4.B.1
Suggested Student Experiences
Activities:
Use household ingredients such as coffee, salt, sugar,
sand, clay soil, rubber band, paper slip, crayon, and a
clear plastic cup to model rock layers.
Create a flipbook to help keep the information about
different kinds of rocks organized – encourage students
to write or draw information about each kind of rock
5.4.4.C.1
Draw a diagram to help show the rock cycle – use
vocabulary words to help simplify the chart
Complete an experiment with how much water
different kinds of soil can hold (sandy soil, loam soil,
and clay soil) – record data on a chart
5.4.4.C.2
Interdisciplinary Connections:
Have students create or read a circle graph with
information about the ingredients in loam (sand, silt,
clay, humus, water, air)
Assessments:
Teacher created worksheet and assessments
End of the chapter assessments from manual
Data collected from classroom projects
Suggested Resources / Materials
Smart Board activities
Ipads
Student Text Book/Teacher’s Manual
Brain Pop/Brain Pop Jr.
United Streaming
Suggested Vocabulary:
Rock, mineral, soil, decay, nutrient, loam,
metamorphic, rock, igneous rock, sedimentary rock
Science
Grade 3
Unit Title:
Solar System and Sky Patterns
Suggested Timeline
Marking Period 4
Suggested Duration
30 – 40 days
Big Ideas
 Objects, such as, the sun and moon have patterns of movement
 Phases of the Moon
 Force of gravity
 Order of the planets from the sun
Standards
5.4.4.A.1-Forumlate a general description of the daily motion of the Sun across the sky based on shadow observations
5.4.4.A.2-Identify patterns of the Moon’s appearance and make predictions about its future appearance based on observational data.
5.4.4.A.3-Generate a model with explanatory value that explains both why objects roll down ramps as well as why the Moon orbits the Earth.
5.4.4.A.4-Analyze and evaluate evidence in the form of data tables and photographs to categorize and relate solar system objects.
Student Learning Objectives
Explain how the movement
of Earth is related to the Sun
determining the pattern of
day and night.
 Explain the pattern of
changes in shadows cast by
the Sun in terms of the
movement of Earth in
relation to the Sun.
 Know that days and nights
change length throughout the
year, as well as the patterns
of average temperatures
throughout the year.
 Explain how the Moon and
Earth interact and know the
frequency of the lunar cycle.
 Describe ways to study stars
and explain how
constellations are in patterns
that are stable and how they
move in the night sky.
 Know the Sun is a star that is
much nearer to the Earth than
any other stars, but there are
many other stars that are far
away.
Standards Addressed
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5.4.4.A.1
Suggested Student Experiences
Activities
Oreo activity to show phases of the moon-mounted on
a paper plate
Eclipse of the Sun experiment (See activity flip chart
for instructions)
KWL chart for vocabulary-also used as a pre/post
assessment of the unit
5.4.4.A.2
Group work to create the relative position of the
planets from the Sun and include facts about each
planet
Assessments
Teacher created worksheet and assessments
5.4.4.A.3
End of the chapter assessments from manual
Data collected from classroom projects
Suggested Resources / Materials
Smart Board activities
Ipads
Poster board
Yarn
Crayons, Markers, Colored Pencils
Student Text Book/Teacher’s Manual
Brain Pop/Brain Pop Jr.
United Streaming
Suggested vocabulary:
Star, axis, rotation, revolution, phase, lunar eclipse,
telescope, constellation, planet, solar system, orbit,
asteroid,
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Know the relative position of
all the planets.
Know the characteristics of
Earth, Mars, Venus and
Mercury.
Know that the planets differ
in size, characteristics, and
composition and that they
orbit the Sun in our solar
system.
5.4.4.A.4