Third Grade
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| Analysis of People and their Civil Rights |
Students have been studying civil rights and the groups of people that were affected by the lack of basic rights. They have discussed people and topics like; Harriet Tubman, slavery, the Underground Railroad, women's rights, George Washington Carver, Nat Turner, Sourjourner Truth and Martin Luther King Jr. This lesson will allow the students to use U.S. census data, graph it, then analyze the data for a particular issue to study further. Some examples of variables the students could graph and analyze are; 1850: number of free blacks in the population, 1870: number of native peole who can't write, 1930: number of persons 7-13 years old who are attending school, 1950: number of civilian women in the workforce, 1960: number of married couples with their own household. This lesson should be taught in a 4-5 day time period in order to allow students enough time to collect and prepare data as well as prepare for an oral presentation for the class. Meets Arizona State Technology Standards 1, 4, 5, and 6. |
| Art and the World |
Students will choose their best artwork from three different pieces they created. If the chosen work is 2D, the student will scan their work. If the chosen work is 3D, the student will take a digital picture of the work. Students will create a page for the Painted Sky 2 and 3D Photo Album. All student pages will then be uploaded to the Painted Sky Art Photo Album. Meets Arizona State Technology Standards 3 and 4. |
| Biography Acrostics |
Prior to this lesson students will have spent 2 class periods in the computer lab learning about acrostic poetry by looking at an acrostic website and typing one acrostic poem of their choice. For this lesson, the students will be connecting to the same acrostic website as before, and looking at acrostic poetry in history, particularly primary source material in the form of newspaper clippings from the 1700’s where readers wrote acrostic poems praising their president, George Washington. Students will then choose a person they would like to research and find information online about the person they chose and write an acrostic poem using both the first and last name of the person using the biographical information found online. Finally, the students will publish their poems online. Meets Arizona State Technology Standard 5. |
| Dicscover Native Americans Launch Page |
This website helps students research about Southwest Native Americans. After reading and writing about their selected Native American Tribe, students will create a Triangular Diorama! Upon completion of this activity, students will also evaluate their shared projects using the rubric provided. Meets Arizona State Technology Standards: 1,3,4,5 & 6. |
| Endangered Animal Research |
In this lesson students will use the CD-ROM (World Book Encyclopedia) to find information on their endangered animal for their research project to learn about the issues involved. Students will use this information on future assignments (organize notes, write a research paper, create a poster to encourage people to save animals, participate in debates, write and perform plays that depicts their animal, and create a Kid Pix Slide Show presentation that will illustrate their understandings). Students will be evaluating their own assignments, as well as evaluating classmates assignments. Meets Arizona State Technology Standards 1 and 5. |
| Exploring the Desert Giants |
One of the amazing wonders of the Arizona Desert is the Saguaro Cactus. The Saguaro Cactus blossom is the state flower of Arizona and worth investigation. Students will view primary source photographs from the late 1800’s from the Library of Congress. As a result, the students will investigate the life of a Saguaro and draw conclusions of its habitation in the desert. Students will then assess their work by comparing information from a Saguaro website. Here they will be able to learn more about Arizona’s Giant. Meets Arizona State Technology Standards 1, 5 and 6. |
| Happy Camper |
The last story our class will read this year is An Occasional Cow by Polly Horvath. It is about a couple of girls who go to a summer camp every year. This lesson introduces students to the idea of summer camp, and provides them an opportunity to research the best camp for themselves. Then, students will present their favorite summer camp selection in a persuasive letter to their parents. Meets Arizona State Technology Standards 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6. |
| How Long is That? |
This lesson introduces students to the world of reading music. Students will use interactive websites that use games to learn the name of notes and rests symbols. Some of the sites have the capability that allows students to hear and learn about note and rest duration. After they have learned the names of the notes and rests, students can download worksheets and apply the knowledge that they have gained. After ample practice, students will be asked to create their own rhythm patterns and perform them for their classmates. Meets Arizona State Technology Standard 1. |
| In the Beginning with Word |
Microsoft Word is a basic computer program that many schools use. It is the program that most of my students use as well. It is important for the students to understand how the program works if they are to use the program to their advantage – even in the beginning stages. Students will create a web for their story using the Draw tools in Microsoft Word. After writing a story, students will create a title page using Microsoft Word. Meets Arizona State Technology Standard 1. |
| Internet Safety |
In this lesson students will view a Power Point presentation about Internet Safety Do’s and Don’ts. They will participate in a class discussion about Internet safety. Students will design and create a typed poster in Word to inform other students about Internet safety. The students will create a Word document that includes text and a graphic. The posters will then be displayed in the computer room. Meets Arizona State Technology Standards 2 and 3. |
| Kwanzaa Launch Page |
This is a great page to do with your kids around the holiday season. If your students are learning about how other cultures celebrate the holidays here is one for Kwanzaa. The students will use this site as a primary source for learning all about the holiday and complete a scavenger hunt of the site to find out specifics on the holiday. Arizona State Technology Standards 1 and 5. |
| Let's Talk Turkey |
The following is a Thanksgiving activity that includes hands-on technology research. First, the students will research the topic of “The First Thanksgiving Dinner” through the Internet. Then, they will write directions on how to make their favorite Thanksgiving food. And finally, they will research to find a “real” recipe for their favorite Thanksgiving food. This is a cross-curricular lesson integrating social studies, language arts, and technology. A cookbook will be created from the combined efforts of the students. Meets Arizona State Technology Standards 1, 3, 4 and 5. |
| Life in the White House |
Students will use the White House website to use primary source photographs to compare and contrast past and present photos of life in the White House. Meets Arizona State Technology Standards 1 and 5. |
| Mapping the Classroom |
Creating maps and labeling them is one of the state standards for Geography in the Primary grades. During the study of our community, a problem arose in the classroom. We needed to arrange the classroom so that we had the most available room for not only center activities, but for sitting together for community and reading time. The students were asked to use the some of the draw tools on Microsoft Office and recreate our classroom. They were asked to title their “map,” and create a compass rose using cardinal directions. Meets Arizona State Technology Standards 1 and 6. |
| Monster Exchange |
Monster Exchange is designed to encourage the development of reading and writing skills while integrating Internet technology into the classroom curriculum. Classrooms from a variety of schools worldwide are paired together; the students in each classroom are split into groups, each of which designs an original picture of a monster. The students must then write a description of the monster. The partnered classes then exchange their descriptions via email and the Internet. These students are then challenged to use reading comprehension skills to read the descriptions and translate them into a monster picture. The true challenge involves creating a redrawn picture as close to the original picture as possible without looking at the original and using only the written description of the monster. Meets Arizona State Technology Standards 3 and 4. |
| Musical Stories |
Did you know that music tells a story? Students will be listening to different pieces of music and learning the stories that go with them. They will then listen to a new piece of music and use Kid Pix to draw a picture of their interpretation of the new piece of music. Meets Arizona State Technology Standard 2. |
| Ocean Oil Spill Solutions |
Students are studying the ocean biome. This lesson is part of a week long study on ocean pollution. Students have already completed an experiment on oil spills and have tried to clean up oil out of water using a variety of absorption materials. This lesson continues to explore ways that oil can be cleaned out of our ocean waters. With a partner students will read about and look at pictures showing the methods of cleaning up an oil spill. They will then create a PowerPoint report showing three ways spills can be cleaned up. Meets Arizona State Technology Standards 3, 5 and 6. |
| Parts of a Story Launch Page |
Students will use the Magic Tree House Website to broaden their knowledge of characters and character traits. They have read a variety of Magic Tree House stories as a class as well as some on their own. They know Jack and Annie fairly well. They will use their knowledge of these characters to create their own characters for a story they will be writing. The students will try to imitate how the author helps the reader get to know the characters. Meets Arizona State Technology Standards 1 and 5. |
| Poetry Publishing |
This lesson teaches children how to find a particular website http://pbskids.org/arthur/games/poetry, write a cinquain poem, and publish it on a website so the world can read their work. This lesson should be taught in a 3-4 day time period with an average of 20-30 min per lesson. Meets Arizona State Technology Standards 1 and 3. |
| Pollution Poster |
In this lesson students will use Kid Pix 3 to create a compare and contrast poster that is divided into two sections. One side will represent a clean, natural environment. The other side will be a polluted environment. Meets Arizona State Technology Standard 3. |
| Presenting Spiders using Microsoft PowerPoint |
Students will spend about three weeks using a variety of resources to learn about spiders. They will use different organizational tools to record what they learn: note cards, charts, and diagrams. Students will then create an individual Microsoft PowerPoint presentation to share with others. Meets Arizona State Technology Standards 3, 4 and 5. |
| Publishing Peace |
Extra, extra, read all about it! Here you’ll find a simple publishing lesson that will use pictures and stories in order to help students brainstorm ideas about peace. The goal being that students exhibit their own ideas in a "virtual museum." The International Peace Museum originated in Cincinnati and now allows schools from all over the world to contribute to their museum. Meets Arizona State Technology Standards 1 and 4. |
| Pumpkin Seeds Galore |
Students will work in small groups to collect data from eight classroom pumpkins. Students will collect data about the number of seeds each pumpkin has and then use Microsoft Excel to create a bar graph to represent the data. Students will use the graphs to write addition and subtraction story problems for each other to solve. Meets Arizona State Technology Standard 3. |
| Rebus Story |
The students will create a written rebus story to be published on the Storybook website- http://www.kids-space.org/story/story.html. This meets the Arizona Language Arts and Writing Standards and also Arizona State Technology Standards 1, 3, and 4. |
| Safety in Chat Rooms |
Students are beginning to use the Internet for both work and play. Chat rooms are becoming very common with even younger children. I have several students that are already involved in friendly chats online. They need to realize that “Stranger Danger” lurks. This lesson is designed to help children learn how to be safe as they use the Internet for both work and play. Meets Arizona State Technology Standard 2. |
| Square of Life |
During our unit of study on “Saving the Earth,” our kids will plot square meters of land in our schoolyard and in the desert area just outside our fence. We will record both the living and non-living things that we find. This information will be submitted via e-mail to a project database. This database is accessible to all members that have joined the project. We will compare and contrast our information with other classes. Each group will compose a report or presentation that we will e-mail to the project and it will be posted to the project web site. We will find a “buddy class” online to compare and share our information with as well. Meets Arizona State Technology Standard 4. |
| Square of Life |
In this project students will plot square meters in their schoolyards and record the living and non-living things that are found. They will submit this information to the project database, this will allow viewing via the Internet. Students will then compare and contrast their information with that submitted by other classes from around the world and prepare a brief report or presentation that will be posted to the project web site. Meets Arizona State Technology Standards 1 and 5. |
| The Voice of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. |
This lesson is near the end of a culminating unit on civil rights. We have been learning about Martin Luther King, Jr., Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, and The Underground Railroad. This lesson is an opportunity for students to see, hear, and analyze the words of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s speech, I Have a Dream. Meets Arizona State Technology Standard 3. |
| Tornado Alert! Launch Page |
In this lesson the students will read a non-fiction article about an actual family's encounter with a tornado. During their reading they will answer comprehension questions and work with vocabulary related to tornadoes. Then, the students will read information regarding tornado safety and create a tornado safety brochure. Meets Arizona State Technology Standards 5 and 6. |
| Travel the Ocean Blue! Launch Page |
This lesson introduces students to Social Studies Map skills. Students will travel through an interactive website to learn about the earth's oceans. As they discover interesting facts, the students will create their own Ocean Logbook. In conclusion, they will assess their work by checking a rubric for their writing. Students can rate themselves from a cabin boy to an admiral! This meets the Arizona State Technology Standards: 1, 3 and 5. |
| Weathering the Weather |
Our present unit of study is the weather. Through class discussions, I found that many of my students are not aware of the differences in weather around the world or even in the United States. Through this activity students will investigate weather phenomenon both locally as well as in countries around the world. This will also heighten student awareness of the use of maps and the effect of the weather on different environments. Meets Arizona State Technology Standard 5. |
| What do you Recycle? |
In this lesson students will survey the entire third grade about what items they recycle at home. After collecting the data students will work in groups to create a bar graph in order to interpret the data. Each student group will then express a solution to the problem in a Power Point Presentation which includes their graph. Meets Arizona State Technology Standards 3 and 6. |
| What Do You Want To Do This Weekend? |
Students will plan the agenda for a day after interviewing family members, checking the weather forecast, and researching some local destinations through bookmarked websites. If driving is necessary to reach a destination, directions will be located online and printed. When finished they may use the rubric provided to rate their project. Meets Arizona State Technology Standards 1, 5, and 6. |
| Who's Who in Fourth Grade |
As we near the end of this school year, students are starting to look forward to fourth grade with anticipation and a little trepidation. To alleviate some of their fears of the unknown, this lesson was designed to introduce fourth grade staff members and provide some information about upcoming events for the next school year. This lesson requires students to learn in cooperative groups. Students will interview, draft, edit, and publish an article for a brochure that will be distributed to their peers. This lesson was developed as part of the Integrated Curriculum Collaborative with Patti Greenleaf in the 2003-2004 school year. Meets Arizona State Technology Standards 1, 3 and 4. |
| Wonderful World of Weather |
Students will use a website to track and observe the weather of other states or countries where they have friends or relatives living. This meets Arizona Science, Social Studies and Technology Standards. The students will then use the information that they have gathered to compare and contrast the weather in the state they live in to the weather of another state. Meets Arizona State Technology Standards 1 and 5. |
| You're Invited!!! |
The frozen turkeys have been purchased. The decorations are underway. We are learning that living in a community is more than having an address within the city limits. The plan is to have a Thanksgiving Pot Luck. Parents will be invited to celebrate Thanksgiving. They must bring a dish to share. The excitement is stirring – the invitations need to be created!!! Meets Arizona State Technology Standard 3. |
