The Third Grade Syllabus contains detailed daily lesson plans for Religion, Mathematics, Language Arts, Spelling & Phonics, Poetry, Science, History, Geography, Latin, Art and Music. It also contains a variety of teaching resources including Third Grade Subject Rubrics and Learning Objectives, suggested daily schedules, teaching tips and a list of grade level appropriate literature. We have provided below a sample of the first week from the syllabus along with a list of the books used in the syllabus.
In Religion we use The Child's Bible History (Knecht) to learn about salvation history and to construct a Bible Book. The student also continues the memorization of Catholic doctrine, using the St. Joseph's Baltimore Catechism, No.1. In Mathematics we use Arithmetic 3 (A Beka) to teach mathematical skills, including memorization of the multiplication tables. In Language Arts we use Primary Language Lessons (Serl) which teaches important basic writing skills. In Spelling and Phonics we use The Writing Road to Reading along with Starting a Spelling Notebook which continues the study of phonics and begins the practice of spelling. In Poetry we continue to use The Harp and Laurel Wreath for selections of poetry to memorize. In Science we use Exploring God's World (A Beka) which is an excellent science text. In History we recommend using Short Stories of Famous Americans (MODG), Our American Heritage (A Beka) or How Our Nation Began (Furlong) to study the founders of our country and to memorize important dates in American history. We also provide the student with list of historical fiction to complement the study of history through literature as well as a list of good literary classics. In Geography we use Map Study Skills (A Beka) which teaches the student how to read maps. In Latin we use Latin & Greek Roots (MODG), English from the Roots Up or Beginning Latin I to begin the study of Latin and Greek. In Art we use the Third Grade Art (MODG) to continue the student's art appreciation. In Music we use Let's Learn Music, #2 (Hayes); selections from Music Masters to foster the student's appreciation of music.
Current Edition: © 2018.
Online versions of the MODG syllabi are provided to enrolled families free of charge. Paper copies of the syllabi are also available for purchase from the MODG office, with a 30% discount for enrolled families.
| Day | Assignment |
|---|---|
| 1 | Baltimore Catechism, Chapter 15. Read the explanation aloud to your child or let him read it silently to himself, depending on his reading level. |
| 2 | Do the Discussion Questions orally. Use these questions all year as a vehicle to develop the habit of discussion with your child. Help him learn to put his mind on an important topic and explore it for a given period of time. At this point how long one does this is not as important as how often. Make this discussion a regular feature of your religion curriculum this year. We usually start with a five to ten minute discussion, and I am always happy to converse about the other topics brought to my student’s mind by the initial topic. |
| 3 | Do the ‘True or False’ and ‘Fill in the Blanks’ exercises at the end of the chapter. Then do the readings from the Bible. |
| 4 | Start working on the questions and answers. When going over the 10 Commandments, note the division within the Commandments themselves. The first three are about God, and the last seven about our neighbor. All year, when introducing new questions and answers, follow the same procedure. First read the question and the answer while the student listens, then read the question again, and have your student try to answer it. If he can, great. Do it one more time and go on to the next question. If he can’t answer it, fine, just prompt him through it. Do it one more time, prompting him through it if necessary, and then go on to the next question. Resist the temptation to go over and over the new questions. Chances are good you will actually be setting up impediments to memorization by doing that. |
| Day | Assignment |
|---|---|
| 1 | Arithmetic 3 – Do Lesson 1 and ½ of Lesson 2 and Speed Drill 2. |
| 2 | Arithmetic 3 – Do ½ of Lesson 2 and Lesson 3 and Speed Drill 3. |
| 3 | Arithmetic 3 – Do Lesson 4 and Speed Drill 4. |
| 4 | Arithmetic 3 – Do Lesson 5 and Speed Drill 5. |
| 5 | Arithmetic 3 – Do Lesson 6. |
| Day | Assignment |
|---|---|
| 1 | Read the ‘Suggestions to Teachers’. Then do Lesson 1 orally with your child. |
| 2 | Read with your child the whole selection given in Lesson 2. Then have him copy the first paragraph of Lesson 2. Copying is a good exercise, because it encourages hand-eye coordination, and allows the student to see the composition in his own writing, with all the correct capitalization and punctuation. As he copies he has to think about what is capitalized and what isn’t, and where to put the marks of punctuation. As I mentioned in the religion section of this syllabus, when I was younger I eschewed copying. I thought of it as a mindless, boring activity, a waste of time. I now realize that since children learn by imitation, imitation is always a valid and valuable exercise. |
| 3 | Go over the first paragraph of Lesson 2, talking to your child about the mechanics of the passage. Note the capital letters, and the ending punctuation for each sentence. Go over the difficult words of the passage, noting their spelling. Then dictate the first paragraph to your child and have him write it from your dictation. For this assignment, and all subsequent dictations, the dictation should be given as follows, unless otherwise noted:
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| 4 | Do Lesson 3. First go over the sentences orally, then have the student copy sentences 1-3. |
| Day | Assignment |
|---|---|
| 1 | Introduce “The Flag Goes By” by Henry Halcomb Bennett. Work on the first stanza. The first day a poem is introduced, the teacher should read the whole poem, and then repeat the first stanza. Then each line of the first stanza should be said, with the student repeating it after the teacher. The teacher should then say the first two lines together and have the student repeat them, and do the same with the next two lines. Then say the whole stanza, and have the student try to repeat it. If he can’t repeat it yet, that’s fine. Just prompt him through it, and remember that there will be many other opportunities to work on it. |
| 2 | Introduce “The Flag Goes By” by Henry Halcomb Bennett. Work on the first stanza. The first day a poem is introduced, the teacher should read the whole poem, and then repeat the first stanza. Then each line of the first stanza should be said, with the student repeating it after the teacher. The teacher should then say the first two lines together and have the student repeat them, and do the same with the next two lines. Then say the whole stanza, and have the student try to repeat it. If he can’t repeat it yet, that’s fine. Just prompt him through it, and remember that there will be many other opportunities to work on it. |
| 3 | Work on the first stanza of “The Flag Goes By” by Henry Halcomb Bennett. The second day the same procedure is followed, though the whole poem doesn’t need to be read every day. The idea is to have the student hear the lines he is to memorize, and have him practice repeating what he hears. As soon as he knows the lines and doesn’t need the teacher’s help, he should be allowed to say them on his own. Until that point, however, he should be cheerfully prompted through the stanza. |
| 4 | Work on the first stanza of “The Flag Goes By” by Henry Halcomb Bennett. The second day the same procedure is followed, though the whole poem doesn’t need to be read every day. The idea is to have the student hear the lines he is to memorize, and have him practice repeating what he hears. As soon as he knows the lines and doesn’t need the teacher’s help, he should be allowed to say them on his own. Until that point, however, he should be cheerfully prompted through the stanza. |
| 5 | Work on the first stanza of “The Flag Goes By” by Henry Halcomb Bennett. The third day the same procedure is followed, though the whole poem doesn’t need to be read every day. The idea is to have the student hear the lines he is to memorize, and have him practice repeating what he hears. As soon as he knows the lines and doesn’t need the teacher’s help, he should be allowed to say them on his own. Until that point, however, he should be cheerfully prompted through the stanza. |
| 6 | Work on the first stanza of “The Flag Goes By” by Henry Halcomb Bennett. The third day the same procedure is followed, though the whole poem doesn’t need to be read every day. The idea is to have the student hear the lines he is to memorize, and have him practice repeating what he hears. As soon as he knows the lines and doesn’t need the teacher’s help, he should be allowed to say them on his own. Until that point, however, he should be cheerfully prompted through the stanza. |
| 7 | Work on the first stanza of “The Flag Goes By” by Henry Halcomb Bennett. On the fourth day, the student should be invited to recite as much of the poem as he knows at this point. |
| 8 | Work on the first stanza of “The Flag Goes By” by Henry Halcomb Bennett. On the fourth day, the student should be invited to recite as much of the poem as he knows at this point. |
| Day | Assignment |
|---|---|
| 1 | Read for ½ hour. Note: Child should read every day for at least half an hour. As often as possible he should also be read to by an adult or older child for the same amount of time in the evenings. |
| 2 | Read for about ½ hour. |
| 3 | Read for about ½ hour. |
| 4 | Read for about ½ hour. |
| 5 | Read for about ½ hour. |
| Day | Assignment |
|---|---|
| 1 | Follow the instructions for Day 1, p. 22. You will begin teaching the phonograms. Work on #3, 4, 8, 9, 11, 13-20, 22-24, 26. These will all be familiar. |
| 2 | Do Day 2, p. 22 of Mari’s Spelling Guide. Work on #2, 5, 7, 25. Reviewing p. 15 of the Guide can be helpful. |
| 3 | Do Day 3, p. 22. Work on #1, 6, 10, 12, 21, 24. Review all cards up to this point. Be sure to read the directions in Mari’s book. |
| 4 | Do Day 4, p. 22. Review phonograms #1-26. You will now start your Spelling Notebook. Be sure to become familiar with Mari’s “Spelling Rule Memory Aid”. Refer to it as you encounter rules in upcoming weeks. |
| Day | Assignment |
|---|---|
| 1 | Read the text pp. 2-7 and do the comprehension questions orally. |
| Day | Assignment |
|---|---|
| 1 | Using an outline map of the continents, such as that on p. 1 of Map Study Skills book, color the continents green and the oceans blue. |
| Day | Assignment |
|---|---|
| 1 | Introduce the first date on the History Dates List for Third Grade in Designing Your Own Classical Curriculum. Go over it with the student twice.
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| 2 | Read Unit 1, Introduction on pp. 4-7 in How Our Nation Began, and review the first history date:
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| 3 | Review the first history date:
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| 4 | Read Unit 1, Chapter 1 on pp. 8-13 and do the study lesson on p. 13 orally, and review the first history date:
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| Day | Assignment |
|---|---|
| 1 | Read about Christopher Columbus on pp. 2-15 in Our American Heritage and do the comprehension questions orally. Either the student can read, or the parent can read to him, depending on the reading ability of the child. Or they can take turns. Introduce the first date on the History Dates List for Third Grade in Designing Your Own Classical Curriculum. Go over it with the student twice.
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| 2 | Take Quiz 1. Review the history date:
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| 3 | Review the history date:
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| 4 | Begin reading Christopher Columbus by D’Aulaire; read about 30 pages. Review the history date:
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| 5 | Finish reading Christopher Columbus by D’Aulaire. |
| Day | Assignment |
|---|---|
| 1 | Lesson 1. Read the first lesson. Do Day 1 exercises. |
| 2 | Lesson 1. Do Day 2 exercises. |
| 3 | Lesson 1. Do Day 3 exercises. |
| 4 | Lesson 1. Take Quiz 1. |
| Day | Assignment |
|---|---|
| 1 | Introduce the first three cards: ‘photos’, ‘graph’, and ‘tele’. Tell the student what each means. Point out that when you put ‘photos’ and ‘graph’ together you get ‘photograph’, to write or draw with light, and when you put ‘tele’ and ‘graph’ together you get ‘telegraph’, to write or draw from a distance. |
| 2 | Review the three cards. If your student remembers the English translation, great. If he doesn’t, tell him. |
| 3 | Review the three cards. |
| 4 | Review the three cards. |
| Day | Assignment |
|---|---|
| 1 | Use the postcards to do Step 4 of Mommy, It’s a Renoir. The object of this step is to learn the names of some artists. Follow the directions in the book. But also do the following exercise. Have your child look at one of the pictures for 30 seconds to a minute. Then have him list everything he saw in the picture. He can do this orally or in writing. Then have him look back at the picture. Did he leave anything out? Try it with another picture as well. |
| Day | Assignment |
|---|---|
| 1 | Do pp. 1 & 2 of Let’s Learn Music. |
| 2 | Listen to the Tchaikovsky tape or CD from the Music Masters series. The children can color or play quietly with a toy while they listen. (There is a coloring book from Bellerophon that has stories and portraits of some of the great composers, including those we will be studying this year.) If you have some other tapes or CD’s of Tchaikovsky’s music, take them out for the next two weeks. Listen to the music in the evening as you get ready for bed, or during a quiet time in the afternoon. You could rent a video of the Sleeping Beauty Ballet, or the Nutcracker Suite. There is even a video called ‘Sleeping Beauty on Ice’ featuring Robin Cousins and Rosalynn Sumners that my children have enjoyed. It is the Sleeping Beauty Ballet performed by figure skaters. |