Spring River’s 3rd-5th grade class curriculum will address the needs of the child up through the nine year change. The child of this age is more capable and confident, and ready to assert him or herself as an individual.  Classes will be offered in 2 or 4 day main lesson groupings.

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Mathematics

The math curriculum in 2018-2019 will be centered on fractions.  The class will divide whole things up into pieces: fruit, pies, pizza, paper, money, and even families- giving children a concrete experience.  They will discover how to find things in "common" so they can be grouped or added together, learning to add, subtract, multiply, divide, reduce, expand, simplify, and convert improper fractions into mixed numbers.  The class will move from things the students can see and touch to the more abstract concepts of numbers on a page.  The class will also cover/review advanced multiplication, long division, place value to millions, averaging, perimeter, area, factoring, rounding, estimating, word problems, prime numbers, decimals, and work continuously on our times tables through song, clapping games and memorization.  They will work on mental math and practice math daily to build confidence and a strong foundation for more complicated math in the higher grades.

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Language Arts

The class will begin the year with Hebrew stories of overcoming adversity as these stories are perfect for the child at this age as they emerge from early childhood ready to stand on their own two feet.  Later, as the children exhibit greater confidence and stronger personalities the class will transition into stories from Norse Mythology as the gods and goddesses from this realm face consequences for their own good and bad behavior! They will study grammar, parts of speech, punctuation, writing paragraphs, and book reports.

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Local History and Geography

As the child emerges from early childhood he or she seeks to know just where he stands on the earth, moving from the imaginative to a more objective view of their world.  The class will learn how to find the four points on the compass and make maps of what is close to them: their bedrooms, houses, neighborhoods... slowly expanding to include each student's section of town, city, and state. Then the class will explore the history of the region and the people that came before them. Several field trips will be planned during this block.

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Science: Zoology

This year the children will undertake an animal study and will be required to do some research and present their findings to the class.  They will create dioramas related to the environment of their chosen animal and explore how that animal has adapted to its surroundings. The unique place humans hold in the world and the responsibility that comes with that place becomes apparent.

They will also take some time this year to study knot tying.

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Form Drawing

The focus this year will be on symmetry and knots.

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Handwork

Cross stitch. Mirror Image/Symmetry