Third Grade

Grade-Level Content Standards

Third Grade

Third grade is a year of great change for kids!  They are full of energy and are often in a hurry!  Their enthusiasm is magical and contagious!  Third graders play hard, but tire easily and can often be overzealous, taking on more than they are able to handle.  At this age(8-9), students learn well by doing, for example, with manipulatives and other hands-on activities.  Exaggerated story-telling using elaborate words is typical of this age group.

Social and emotional strategies/skills include:

  • Works collaboratively in groups and contributes to the group effort.

  • Explores fairness and justice with differences of opinion

  • Adjusts better to change, showing signs of an easygoing personality

  • Takes more risks and recovers from mistakes or problems more quickly

  • Enjoys friendship groups with mostly same gender friends. 

Foundational English Language Acquisition(ELA) Skills include:

  • Answer inference questions from text 
  • Use text evidence to support statements
  • Write multiple (3 or more) well formed paragraphs on a topic with sensory details and transitions, correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar
  • Identify main idea, theme, message, and purpose with text evidence for fables, legends, myths, poems, and non-fiction reading
  • Identify expository text features (e.g. table of contents, glossary, index, captions, maps, diagrams, etc.)

Foundational Math Skills include:

  • Read, write and say numbers up to 100,000
  • Memorize multiplication and division facts through 12
  • Understand, solve, and explain 2 step word problems using all four operations
  • Understand the foundational skills of fractions using multiple representations
  • Compute multi-digit addition and subtraction problems up to 10,000
  • Understand the attributes of shapes in different categories
  • Use measuring tools to calculate length, width, height, area, and volume
  • Tell time to the nearest minute

Tips for Parents of 3rd Grade Students:

  • Give praise and recognition to your child
  • Set aside time for your child to talk and explain their ideas
  • Encourage your child so socialize in groups as feasible
  • Encourage cooperation over competition in group tasks
  • Help your child compartmentalize stressful things like school tests
  • Write directions out for your child to follow (eg morning/bedtime routines)