Welcome to Third Grade  

Third Grade is an exciting year at Taylor. Our curriculum continues to build on the previous years with the Virginia Standards of Learning and Arlington County’s Best Practices. Throughout the year we expose students to a variety of hands-on experiences across all curricular areas.

The science and social studies programs are an essential part of the third grade experience and very enriching! Students manipulate simple machines, take hikes down to Donaldson Run to sketch layers of soil, and make a model of a solid molecule with gumdrops. They interact with huge simple machines at Arlington’s Outdoor Lab. On Hands-on Science Day, the students review a variety of science topics through interactive experiences.

In social studies we take students on an adventure from ancient civilizations to the present day. Students simulate different democracies from ancient Greece and Rome, paint Malian mud cloth and fill a treasure chest of a famous explorer. While studying government, civics and economics students participate in numerous plays to make their learning come to life. The students build an interactive journal throughout the year where they compare the factual knowledge to their own lives and communities.

Students participate in the Dance Celebration each winter. They learn folk and modern dances from around the world. Through dance, students learn skills of cooperation, motor planning and rhythm.

Third graders also look forward to mastering their cursive handwriting and learning the proper techniques for keyboarding.

This is the first year that students participate in the Virginia Standards of Learning tests which is a cumulative assessment based on material learned in kindergarten through third grade.

Third grade is a year for students to grow to be more independent students while engaged in learning that will stay with them through the years!