3rd Grade Science and Social Studies
Science TEKS
Social Studies TEKS
Fall Semester | ||||
| Unit Title | Environment: Geography and Change | Heroes Change Communities | Launching Into Space Systems | Business Matters |
| Time | 10 Weeks | 4 Weeks | 3 Weeks | 6 Weeks |
| Understandings | Students will locate Anchorage, AK, San Francisco, CA, and Honolulu, HI in relation to San Antonio using map elements, scale, cardinal directions, and intermediate directions.
Students will use tools and graphic organizers to describe and compare weather in four U.S. cities.
Students will use tools and graphic organizers to describe and compare climate in four U.S. cities.
Students will identify and compare how people in four U.S. cities adapt to the climate of their physical environment, including clothing, shelter, and forms of transportation.
Students will use tools and graphic organizers to describe and compare landforms in four U.S. states.
Students will use tools and graphic organizers to create a map comparing natural resources found in four U.S. states.
Students will use models to investigate and explain that soils are formed by weathering of rock and decomposition of dead material.
Students will explore the physical properties of sand and clay and explain how the two soils can be combined to create a stronger material.
Students will research how people modify the environment to access natural resources and use them for construction, agriculture, transportation, and manufacturing.
Students will model and describe how volcanoes, earthquakes and landslides can quickly change Earth’s surface.
Students will use tools and graphic organizers to compare natural hazards found in four U.S. states.
Students will complete a STEM Challenge to engineer a barrier to protect cars and roads from landslides. | Students will identify characteristics of good citizenship shown by Clara Barton, who changed her community by founding the Red Cross, and identify nonprofit organizations that serve the common good.
Students will identify characteristics of good citizenship shown by Clara Barton, who changed her community by founding the Red Cross, and identify nonprofit organizations that serve the common good.
Students will describe how military and first responders, including Hector P. Garcia and the Four Chaplains, change communities through their service and sacrifices.
Students will describe how national hero James A. Lovell changed communities by inspiring bravery and teamwork through his leadership in space exploration.
Students will describe how Harriet Tubman changed communities through her work to help enslaved people escape to freedom and women to have the right to vote.
Students will describe how contemporary heroes, including NISD Pillars of Character and Todd Beamer, change their communities through heroic deeds.
Students will identify Jonas Salk as the doctor credited for saving millions of lives with his polio vaccine.
Students will identify Bill Gates as a leader in computer technology and the founder of the Microsoft Corporation.
Students will identify Louis Pasteur as a scientist who invented the pasteurization process and the rabies vaccine. | Students will describe how the female African American mathematicians, now known as the Hidden Figures, contributed to the advancement of space exploration.
Students will observe and construct models to explain how the Sun, Earth, and Moon interact as a system.
Students will use models to identify the order of the eight planets in relation to the Sun.
Students will complete a STEM Challenge to design shock absorbers for a lunar module that will protect two astronauts when they land on the moon. | Students will identify multiple individuals, including Henry Ford, Sam Walton and the Butt family, and how they started new businesses.
Students will compare prices of products or services that are in high/low supply and high/low demand.
Students will explore the concept of scarcity through examples that have happened in the community.
Students will identify how businesses make a profit by managing costs and prices.
Students will use a variety of tools to measure, test, and observe physical properties of matter including mass, magnetism, and the ability of objects to sink or float in water.
Students will classify a variety of objects as solids, liquids, and gasses and describe the shape of each state of matter.
Students will measure the physical property, temperature, to explore how the state of matter of some substances can change by adding or removing heat.
Students will analyze scenarios to identify whether an individual’s choice demonstrates spending, saving, earning, or donating money.
Students will use a given income to create a simple budget that allocates funds for spending, saving, and donating. |
| TEKS | Science 3.10A, 3.11A, 3.10B, 3.6A, 3.6D, 3.10C
Social Studies 3.4A, 3.4B, 3.4C, 3.3A, 3.3B, 3.3A | Science
Social Studies 3.9B, 3.9D, 3.1A, 3.9A, 3.11A, 3.11B, 3.13A, 3.13B | Science 3.9A, 3.9B, 3.5C, 3.5D
Social Studies 3.13A | Science 3.6A, 3.6B, 3.6C, 3.5A, 3.5B, 3.5G
Social Studies 3.6D, 3.6A, 3.6B, 3.6C, 3.5A, 3.5B |
| Skills TEKS | Science 3.1C, 3.1D, 3.3B, 3.1F, 3.3A, 3.3B, 3.1D, 3.1E, 3.3C, 3.1A, 3.1G, 3.2A, 3.1B, 3.2D, 3.4A, 3.4B
Social Studies 3.14A, 3.14C, 3.14D, 3.16B | Science
Social Studies 3.14A, 3.15F, 3.14F, 3.14B, 3.14D, 3.15A, 3.15B, 3.15D, 3.14C | Science 3.4A, 3.4B, 3.1D, 3.1G, 3.2A, 3.3A
Social Studies | Science 3.1D, 3.1E, 3.1F, 3.2B, 3.3A
Social Studies 3.14A, 3.15D, 3.14C, 3.15A, 3.15F, 3.14D, 3.15A, |
Spring Semester | ||||
| Unit Title | Exploring Environments | We The People: Our Government System | The Power of Interactions | Culture Connections |
| Time | 6 Weeks | 3 Weeks | 4 Weeks | 2 Weeks |
| Understandings | Students will use lady beetle larvae, lima beans, and a variety of models to explore, illustrate, and compare life cycles of organisms.
Students will explore animals in different environments and explain how external structures help animals move, eat, breathe, and protect themselves.
Students will observe various Texas fossils and use their characteristics to make inferences about past organisms and environments.
Students will use diagrams with arrows to describe how energy flows through food chains and predict how food chains are affected when an organism is removed from an environment.
Students will use temperature and precipitation data to explore and explain changes in animal behaviors and plant responses.
Students will simulate floods and droughts to explore how plants and animals may respond to these natural changes in their environments.
Students will compare how people in different environments adapt to and modify their surroundings and explain how those changes shape the environment.
Students will describe how good citizens conserve natural resources through reducing, reusing, and recycling to ensure valuable resources are available for the community. | Students will describe how Pierre-Charles L'Enfant and Benjamin Banneker influenced the design of Washington D.C.
Students will describe how the Founding Fathers, including Benjamin Franklin, shaped their communities as leaders.
Students will describe how Daniel Boone shaped communities through his explorations that led to new settlements.
Students will identify reasons people have formed communities and compare how those needs are met.
Students will explain the purposes of the founding documents of the United States, including being free from rule by others, outlining the powers of the government, and ensuring basic rights to its people.
Students will describe the structure and services of each level of government, as well as the officials at each level.
Students will describe how good citizens participate in government, engage in acts of civic responsibility and vote. | Students will explore interactions that demonstrate contact forces including pushes and pulls as well as forces at a distance including magnetism and gravity.
Students will plan and conduct descriptive investigations to identify patterns in how pushes and pulls can change an object’s position and motion.
students will observe changes around them in their everyday lives to identify examples of light, sound, thermal, and mechanical energy
Students will use a car and ramp to plan and conduct an investigation exploring the relationship between speed and mechanical energy. | Students will describe the importance of a variety of community celebrations and compare local celebrations to those in other communities.
Students will identify specific writers and artists and explain how they contribute to the cultural heritage of a community. |
| TEKS | Science 3.5A, 3.5B, 3.5D, 3.5E, 3.5F, 3.13A, 3.13B, 3.12D, 3.1B, 3.12A, 3.12C, 3.11C, 3.11B, 3.3B, 3.3C
Social Studies 3.3B, 3.3C, 3.9A, 3.9C, | Science
Social Studies 3.1A, 3.1B, 3.1C, 3.2A, 3.2B, 3.8A, 3.8B, 3.7A, 3.7B, 3.7C. 3.9A, 3.9C, 3.9E | Science 3.7A, 3.7B, 3.5A, 3.5B, 3.5D, 3.5G, 3.8A, 3.8B,
Social Studies | Science
Social Studies 3.10A, 3.10B, 3.12A |
| Skills TEKS | Science 3.1A, 3.1E, 3.1G, 3.2A, 3.3A, 3.1F, 3.2B, 3.12C, 3.1B.
Social Studies 3.14A, 3.14D, 3.14E, | Science
Social Studies 3.15D, 3.15C, 3.14A, 3.14F, 3.14B, 3.15A. 3.15E, 3.15F, 3.16A | Science 3.1A, 3.1B, 3.1D, 3.1E, 3.1F, 3.1G, 3.2B, 3.2D, 3.3A, 3.3B
Social Studies | Science
Social Studies 3.14A, 3.14C, 3.14E |