Teaching & Learning

In third grade, students continue to develop strategies to effectively use language. Through the presentation of reports and journal writing, they learn to write and speak for a specific purpose. Students learn to become strategic readers by identifying the elements of a story. They read expository material for specific information. Study skills include note taking, the use of reference materials, interpreting graphs and diagrams, and test-taking skills.

Vocabulary development continues to include the refinement of phonetic and decoding skills. Word analysis strategies include: homonyms, antonyms, synonyms, analogies, multiple meaning and compound words. Students expand their vocabulary by learning strategies for identifying unfamiliar words.

Reading comprehension skills taught include: understanding fiction and nonfiction reading selections, identifying main ideas, sequencing events, recalling details, making predictions, drawing inferences, and understanding cause-and-effect relationships.

Third graders continue to learn and practice the steps of the writing process. Peer conferencing is introduced as another revision technique. Proper grammar, spelling, and the mechanics of writing are taught to enable students to proofread and communicate more effectively.

Third graders focus on fact families in addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. They continue developing strategies for multi-digit addition and subtraction problems. Learning multiplication facts through the 10s is a goal this year. Other third-grade skills include understanding large numbers in addition to working with small numbers using equivalent fractions and decimals (to the thousandths). They continue the study of geometry, negative numbers, calculator skills, telling time, and geometry.

Practical application of measurement skills includes linear, weight, and capacity with customary and metric units. Students perform probability experiments that provide information for analyzing data and predicting outcomes. Third graders will have Home Links homework on a regular basis.

Third grade is a busy year in the media center. Students begin to use the computer card catalog to find their books. They practice searching by author, by title and by subject. They are introduced to the Dewey Decimal System, and use their alphabet skills, their math skills and their general subject knowledge to locate books. Encyclopedia, maps and globes in the media center are important resources. Students use these for classroom research on cities, countries and other curriculum subjects. Third graders are reading chapter books and poetry. Literature appreciation continues to be important as it is a lifelong skill. In many schools, biography is an important unit for third grade as these students find a variety of materials with information about the person of their choice.

Students learn important science concepts and develop the ability to think critically by actively constructing ideas through their own inquiries, investigations, and analyses. Students are actively engaged in the process of science as they explore the natural world.

Measurement, the process of quantifying observations, is one of the cornerstones of science. Measurement compares nature—the unknown—to a standard unit—the known. Through such comparison, the organization of the world becomes more comprehensive. The Measurement Module consists of four investigations, each designed to emphasize a particular type of metric measurement—length, mass, temperature, and volume.

Water is the most important substance on Earth. Water dominates the surface of our planet, changes the face of the land, and defines life. These powerful, pervasive ideas are introduced here. The Water Module consists of four investigations in which students explore properties of water, changes in water, interactions between water and other earth materials, and how humans use water.

The Earth, Moon, and Sun Module is designed to introduce students to objects we see in the sky. Students compare and contrast the characteristics of the Earth, Moon, and Sun as they investigate the relative motion of each.

The Structures of Life Module consists of four sequential investigations dealing with observable characteristics of organisms. Students observe, compare, categorize, and care for a selection of organisms, and in so doing they learn to identify properties of plants and animals and to sort and group organisms on the basis of observable properties. Students investigate structures of the organisms and learn how some of the structures function in growth and survival.

The third grade social studies curriculum focuses on regions. Students begin by examining regional communities in Michigan and then go on to explore the five regions of the United States. Students actively participate in inquiry-based lessons that emphasize knowledge of history, geography, economics, and political science as they compare and contrast the US regions. Third graders continue to expand their knowledge of citizenship as they further explore the core democratic values.

The third-grade visual art curriculum continues to focus on the sequential study of the elements and principles of art, including color, line, form, shape, pattern, composition, space, and texture. Students are provided activities to stimulate their imaginations and refine as well as expand their artistic skills, visual acumen, and historic and aesthetic awareness. Students at this level can talk about and produce a high quality of art. They are able to discriminate and form artistic judgments about their art and the creative efforts of their peers.

During the year, student art may be displayed in individual school buildings and throughout the community.

In third grade, students continue to build upon their musical knowledge-base as more complex songs, musical notation, and vocabulary are presented by the music specialist. Students actively demonstrate their awareness of the elements of music through their successful use of dynamics, tone color, melody, and harmony in the songs they sing and in the accompaniments and compositions they create. Students deepen their understanding of the world around them and hone their critical-thinking skills by tracing a song's geographic, historical and cultural roots, as well as listening to, analyzing, interpreting, and responding to a variety of songs and musical works.

Exposure to a variety of music allows students to formulate attitudes and values about music. A public performance is often an outcome of the third-grade curriculum.

Students in third grade review and reinforce the decision-making steps and process in choices they make. The students are introduced to the various body systems. The major parts and functions of the skeletal and muscular systems are identified. Peer pressure in relation to smoking is discussed, and students learn to select the appropriate choice of behavior in a given situation.

Students go to Physical Education class twice a week, once for 25 minutes and once for 30 minutes. Students continue to work with their Gross Motor skills, spatial awareness, and coordination. They will explore the principles of eye, hand, and foot coordination through a variety of activities. Students continue to develop traditional team sports based skills through culminating activities and game play.   They will be assessed in certain skills throughout the year. Students will develop positive characteristics and attitudes, a sense of fair play, teamwork concepts, and cooperation with others. At this level, there is an increased emphasis on cardiopulmonary fitness, muscular strength, flexibility and coordination through the T.R.O.Y. Fitness Program. Students are assessed twice a year in Continuous Jog, Jump Roping, Plank, Sit and Reach, and Flex-arm Hang. Every student will have a personal fitness log that they will set goals for themselves in each of the fitness tests. After every assessment, student will reevaluate their goals and set new ones.

Troy School District's elementary Spanish program is intended to help children achieve a positive, successful experience in their exposure to learning another language. Elementary students in grades 3 through 5 receive 45 minutes of oral instruction per week. In third grade, the children will become more comfortable with reading and writing in Spanish. The students will begin independent oral activities, and will continue mastering listening comprehension skills. Some topics of instruction include greetings, colors, numbers, family, community, animals, alphabet, calendar and breakfast foods.

Fourth-grade students learn additional strategies to effectively express themselves in both written and spoken language. Listening is also an important skill that students work on. Students participate in individual and group oral reports and presentations in different curricular areas. They continue to learn and practice strategies to differentiate fact and opinion, the author's viewpoint, making inferences, predicting outcomes, and summarizing.

Vocabulary development includes using context clues, word analysis, multiple-meaning words, and word analogies. Students expand their personal vocabularies through a variety of reading, writing, and listening activities. Children become more competent in understanding structure in both fiction and nonfiction text. Through the use of a variety of writing activities, students are given ample opportunities to draft, revise, proofread, and create final copies.

Fourth graders explore geometry concepts and apply shape properties to create geometric figures. They use several different techniques to find the perimeter and area of assorted shapes. Children in fourth grade apply their knowledge of math facts to fact extensions, such as 4 X 8 = 32 so 40 X 80 = 3200, and develop strategies for multi-digit multiplication problems. They use their knowledge of estimation, place value, and the relationship between multiplication and division to develop a division strategy.

Children are able to apply a variety of strategies for adding or subtracting multi-digit numbers and can apply them to situations involving decimal values. In the fourth grade, children use manipulatives to conduct probability experiments and to explore equivalent decimals and percents. Homework pages are now called Math Links.

Fourth-grade students experience a yearlong project, the World Tour. They "travel" to Washington, D.C. from Troy and then "visit" five other regions of the world. Math skills include reading tables for information, collecting numerical data, using map scales to estimate distance, locating points on a grid, and using latitude and longitude for locations on Earth. Children are also involved in performing experiments and conducting surveys where they have the opportunity to collect and organize data, display the information, and analyze and interpret the results.

Fourth graders expand their research skills adding more sophisticated encyclopedias, electronic resources, online databases, atlases and almanacs. They evaluate the resources to decide which are best for answering specific types of questions. In fourth grade, students begin to use selected sites on the Internet to find curriculum related information. This also allows them to practice their Internet safety lessons. Technology is an important component of fourth grade media as these students can create multimedia projects that integrate media skills with curriculum studies. Literature and reading are also important as students refine their skill in selecting books for enjoyment reading.

Fourth grade students take part in an in-depth study of Michigan’s geography, history, economics, and government. Students are given the opportunity to discover differences and similarities between Michigan and other states. Students use knowledge of core democratic values to take a stand on current public policy issues.

In fourth grade, students employ the artistic elements and principles as their creativity, knowledge-base, interest, and enthusiasm for art are nurtured by an elementary visual art specialist. Based on the study of various cultures, historical periods, and famous works of art, the sequential curriculum focuses on challenging the students' problem-solving abilities.

Students are taught to manipulate an increasing variety of tools and materials and to utilize more complex artistic techniques. Throughout the year, student art may be displayed in individual school buildings and the community.

Students learn important science concepts and develop the ability to think critically by actively constructing ideas through their own inquiries, investigations, and analyses. Students are actively engaged in the process of science as they explore the natural world.

The Earth Materials Module consists of four sequential investigations dealing with observable characteristics of solid materials from the earth—rocks and minerals. The focus is on taking materials apart to find what they are made of and putting materials together to better understand their properties. The module introduces fundamental concepts in earth science and takes advantage of the students' intrinsic interest in the subject matter and in the physical world around them.

The Magnetism and Electricity Module consists of five sequential investigations, each designed to introduce or reinforce concepts in physical science. The investigations provide opportunities for students to explore the natural and human-made worlds by observing and manipulating materials in focused settings using simple tools.

Chemistry is the study of the structure of matter and the changes or transformations that take place in it. Learning about the makeup of substances gives us knowledge about how things go together and how they can be taken apart. Learning about changes in substances is important for several reasons: changes can be controlled to produce new materials; changes can be used to give off energy to run machines. The Mixtures and Solutions Module has four investigations that introduce students to these fundamental ideas in chemistry.

All living things depend on the conditions in their environment. The study of the relationships between one organism and its environment builds knowledge of all organisms. With this knowledge comes an awareness of limits. Changes in an environment can be hard on organisms. Such knowledge is important because humans can change environments. To do so without awareness of possible consequences can lead to disasters. The Environments Module consists of six investigations that introduce students to these basic concepts in environmental biology.

In fourth-grade Vocal/general music, students continue to build upon their past information-base as they refine their understanding of musical elements and concepts. Musical literacy is stressed as students learn to read and sing standard musical notation, to analyze, move to, and to create more complex songs.

A strong correlation is made among the songs, instruments, and ethnic dances and their geographic, historical and cultural roots.

In fourth grade, students become aware that the outcome of situations depends on the choices they make. Students recognize how health products can be used or misused and learn some common reasons for drug misuse. They learn how smoking and alcohol affect the body.

The students continue to study the human body and how it is composed of cells, organs, and tissues. Students gain an understanding of the structure and functions of the heart, circulatory system, respiratory system, and digestive system.

Students go to Physical Education class twice a week, once for 25 minutes and once for 30 minutes. Students continue to work and fine tune Gross-Motor skills, spatial awareness, and coordination. They increase their ability with the principles of eye, hand, and foot coordination through a variety of activities. Students continue to develop traditional team sports based skills through culminating activities and game play. They will be assessed in certain skills throughout the year. Students will develop positive characteristics and attitudes, a sense of fair play, teamwork concepts, and cooperation with others. At this level, there is an increased emphasis on cardiopulmonary fitness, muscular strength, flexibility and coordination through the T.R.O.Y. Fitness Program. Students are assessed twice a year in Continuous Jog, Jump Roping, Plank, Sit and Reach, and Flex-arm Hang. Every student will have a personal fitness log that they will set goals for themselves in each of the fitness tests. After every assessment, student will reevaluate their goals and set new ones.

Troy School District's elementary Spanish program is intended to help children achieve a positive, successful experience in their exposure to learning another language. Elementary students in grades 3 through 5 receive 45 minutes of oral instruction per week. In fourth grade, the children will continue reading and writing in Spanish. The students will engage in independent oral activities as they focus on listening comprehension skills, which are a vital part of language learning. Some topics of instruction include greetings, colors, numbers, family, community, animals, alphabet, calendar, lunch foods, and adjectives.

Fifth grade students continue to develop and refine their language arts skills in reading, writing, thinking, speaking, listening, and viewing. Students demonstrate learning through a variety of methods. They work individually, in small and in large groups to produce oral/written reports, dramatizations, debates, and demonstrations. Students learn new vocabulary and apply it in reading, speaking, listening, and writing activities.

At this grade level, students understand new words through their study of context clues; root words, prefixes and suffixes; and synonyms and antonyms. Children develop comprehension by listening and reading for specific information. Identification of main ideas, sequencing of events, recalling details, making predictions, drawing inferences, comparing and contrasting, and understanding cause-and-effect relationships are emphasized.

Fifth graders also examine the story structure of different genres, analyze the author's viewpoint, and identify topic sentences, main ideas and supporting details. Activities are also used to stimulate ideas for focusing and organizing student writing across all curriculum areas. Emphasis is placed on using a variety of sentence patterns, developing clarity, individual style, and refining paragraph skills. Children experience a variety of writing activities such as reports, journals, learning logs, persuasive writing, and poetry. They also refine their proofreading skills to produce a quality document.

In fifth grade, students continue to investigate naming numbers in a variety of ways, including factors, exponents, fractions, decimals. They continue to practice with the division algorithm and apply their strategies for whole-number computation to decimals.

Fractions are used in measurement, equivalent forms, ratios, and addition and subtraction situations. Decimal and percent concepts are extended to equivalent forms, number lines, grids, probability, and circle graphs. Fifth graders use manipulatives to explore negative numbers and simple algebraic expressions and problems. They link their measurement and algebra skills by using formulas to find perimeters, areas, and volumes of shapes and solids. They continue their study of geometry, working with angles, 2-D and 3-D figures, and corresponding math tools.

Fifth graders participate in a yearlong American Tour. They examine changes in population, societal trends, demographics, and geography of the United States from its beginnings to the present. This integrated project allows students to use mathematics as a tool in a variety of applications. As with the other grade levels, parent involvement with Math Links is an important part of the program.

By fifth grade, students can identify different literary genre such as historical fiction, science fiction, sports stories and mysteries. They are encouraged to read to enhance skills, such as vocabulary, context clues, sequence of events and prediction, which they are learning in language arts classes. Fifth graders use both print and electronic resources as they develop their research skills in conjunction with language arts, social studies and science projects. Treasure hunts and Internet activities teach them to apply skills they will use on their MEAP tests. They learn to evaluate web sites and print resources in order to prepare for independent use of the media center in middle school and beyond.

Students learn important science concepts and develop the ability to think critically by actively constructing ideas through their own inquiries, investigations, and analyses. Students are actively engaged in the process of science as they explore the natural world.

Some of the most important scientific concepts students learn are the result of their ability to see relationships between objects and events. Relationships always involve interactions, dependencies, and cause and effect. The Variables Module has four investigations that help students discover relationships through controlled experimentation. Students will fling, float, fly, and flip objects as they discover relationships in each investigation.

In the You and Your Body Module, students will examine the skeletal system and replicate the arm’s muscle coordination and measure reaction time. They model the pumping of the heart, calculate lung capacity, and investigate respiration. They find out why we have different types of teeth and how to keep them healthy. Students discover how the five senses work to perceive and evaluate incoming information. Finally, because the body runs on fuel, students test foods for nutrient content and practice reading nutrition labels.

The Earth Processes Module provides an opportunity for students to explore the ongoing forces inside Earth and on Earth’s surface that have been shaping our planet for hundreds of millions of years. Continental drift and plate tectonics are the central themes for this unit as students investigate the rock cycle, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions.

In the Newton’s Toy Box Module, students experiment freely with familiar toys and objects. As they explain their observations, they prove Newton’s three laws of motion. The path of a tossed ball, the flip of a grasshopper toy, and the endless swing of clackers reinforce the concepts of inertia, gravity, acceleration, mass, force, and momentum. Students engage in races, games, and challenges that emphasize the laws of motion which govern everyday tasks.

Students in fifth grade study the historical development of the United States, from the settlement by native peoples through colonization and, later, the American Revolution. They focus on the major events and people that have impacted our country's development. Fifth graders are introduced to ways in which business and industry have affected the economy over the years. Through interactive lessons, geography, problem solving, and study skills are expanded. Students also increase analytical skills by taking a position on an issue, and writing persuasive arguments on topics of social relevance. Fifth grade students further their knowledge and understanding of core democratic values upon which our government is based.
 

Elementary instrumental music is introduced at the fifth-grade level during the regular school day. This specialized music program focuses on the development of fundamental skills and concepts of playing a wind, percussion, or string instrument. Students learn instrument care, playing position, tone quality, music literacy, and vocabulary as they address the challenges of performing in a group ensemble. Stressed are concepts that will encourage students to play with confidence, enthusiasm, and enjoyment all the while fostering a sense of creativity, self- discipline, and personal achievement.

All students, in consultation with an instrumental music specialist, are given the opportunity to participate in either the elementary orchestra or band program. Instruments offered in the orchestra program include: Violin, viola, cello or string bass. Band instruments offered include: Flute, trombone, clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, french horn, baritone or percussion.

Fifth-grade students identify the physical and personal characteristics that make them unique, worthwhile, and valuable. Students study the nervous and reproductive systems while focusing attention on the physical and emotional changes that occur during adolescence. They develop an awareness of the use and effects of drugs. They study how alcohol and tobacco affect the human body.

The visual art curriculum culminates at the fifth-grade level as students demonstrate their prior knowledge of the elements and principles of art; vocabulary; and cultural, historic, and aesthetic awareness through a variety of meaningful, artistic experiences. Fifth graders have the opportunity to respond visually, verbally, analytically, and creatively through the skillful handling of a wide variety of art media.

Throughout the year, student art may be displayed in individual school buildings and the community.

Students go to Physical Education class twice a week, once for 25 minutes and once for 30 minutes. Students continue to work and fine tune Gross-Motor skills, spatial awareness, and coordination. They increase their ability with the principles of eye, hand, and foot coordination through a variety of activities. Students continue to develop traditional team sports based skills through culminating activities and game play. They will be assessed in certain skills throughout the year. Students will develop positive characteristics and attitudes, a sense of fair play, teamwork concepts, and cooperation with others. At this level, there is an increased emphasis on cardiopulmonary fitness, muscular strength, flexibility and coordination through the T.R.O.Y. Fitness Program. Students are assessed twice a year in Continuous Jog, Jump Roping, Plank, Sit and Reach, and Flex-arm Hang. Every student will have a personal fitness log that they will set goals for themselves in each of the fitness tests. After every assessment, student will reevaluate their goals and set new ones.

Troy School District's elementary Spanish program is intended to help children achieve a positive, successful experience in their exposure to learning another language. Elementary students in grades 3 through 5 receive 45 minutes of oral instruction per week. In fifth grade, the children will continue reading and writing in Spanish. The students will engage in independent oral activities as they focus on listening comprehension skills, which are a vital part of language learning. Some topics of instruction include greetings, colors, numbers, family, community, animals, alphabet, calendar, lunch foods, and adjectives.