Third grade at Liberty Common School is antecedent to a significantly more mature academic experience.  The professional 3rd-grade instructors, therefore, prepare students for future academic success by increasing responsibility and independence expectations, and moving fully into the mature literacy stage of literacy development.

 3rd-grade teachers begin shifting the focus away from reading fluency-skills, and instead devote more time discussing rich vocabulary and unwritten details of particular story plots. This strategy prepares the young scholars for the more-intensive literary analysis that begins in 4th grade.

 The 3rd-grade team of professional classroom instructors at LCS identified science as an appropriate area to supplement the Core Knowledge Curriculum with additional materials. Because they are 3rd-grade-science content experts, the instructors aptly identified the deficit in the curriculum, and selected supplemental materials and curricular strategies in partnership with LCS administration.

For efficiency and improved student-performance, these professional instructors also appropriately adapted the pedagogical strategy of teaching either science or history units, rather than overlapping these subjects on the academic calendar.

 Consistent with other elementary-level classrooms, 3rd-grade classrooms continue instruction in and practice of Singapore Math, penmanship, and cross-curricular connections from the Core Knowledge Curriculum. Responsibility and behavior expectations continue to expand as age-appropriate.