Welcome to Third Grade

In Grade 3 ELA, students read and write more independently than in any previous grade and spend significant blocks of time engaged in reading and writing on their own as well as in assigned tasks and projects. Students listen critically to spoken messages, think about their own contributions to discussions, and plan their oral presentations. Third grade students read grade-level material fluently and with comprehension. Students use root words, prefixes, suffixes, and derivational endings to recognize words. Students demonstrate knowledge of synonyms, antonyms, and multi-meaning words. Students are beginning to distinguish fact from opinion in texts. During class discussions, third grade students support their ideas and inferences by citing portions of the text being discussed. Students read in a variety of genres, including realistic and imaginative fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from classic and contemporary works. Third grade students write with more complex capitalization and punctuation such as proper nouns and commas in a series. Students write with more proficient spelling of contractions and homonyms. Third grade students write longer and more elaborate sentences and organize their writing into larger units of text. Students write several drafts to produce a final product. Students revise their writing to improve coherence, progression, and logic, and edit final drafts to reflect standard grammar and usage. Students master manuscript writing and may begin to use cursive writing.
 
3rd Grade Math:
(1) Within a well-balanced mathematics curriculum, the primary focal points at Grade 3 are multiplying and dividing whole numbers, connecting fraction symbols to fractional quantities, and standardizing language and procedures in geometry and measurement.
 
(2) Throughout mathematics in Grades 3-5, students build a foundation of basic understandings in number, operation, and quantitative reasoning; patterns, relationships, and algebraic thinking; geometry and spatial reasoning; measurement; and probability and statistics. Students use algorithms for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division as generalizations connected to concrete experiences; and they concretely develop basic concepts of fractions and decimals. Students use appropriate language and organizational structures such as tables and charts to represent and communicate relationships, make predictions, and solve problems. Students select and use formal language to describe their reasoning as they identify, compare, and classify two- or three-dimensional geometric figures; and they use numbers, standard units, and measurement tools to describe and compare objects, make estimates, and solve application problems. Students organize data, choose an appropriate method to display the data, and interpret the data to make decisions and predictions and solve problems.
 
(3) Throughout mathematics in Grades 3-5, students develop numerical fluency with conceptual understanding and computational accuracy. Students in Grades 3-5 use knowledge of the base-ten place value system to compose and decompose numbers in order to solve problems requiring precision, estimation, and reasonableness. By the end of Grade 5, students know basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts and are using them to work flexibly, efficiently, and accurately with numbers during addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division computation.
 
(4) Problem solving, language and communication, connections within and outside mathematics, and formal and informal reasoning underlie all content areas in mathematics. Throughout mathematics in Grades 3-5, students use these processes together with technology and other mathematical tools such as manipulative materials to develop conceptual understanding and solve meaningful problems as they do mathematics.
 
3rd Grade Science:
(1) In Grade 3, the study of science includes planning and implementing simple classroom and field investigations to develop the skills of collecting information using tools such as a microscope, making inferences, communicating conclusions, and making informed decisions. Students also use computers and information technology tools to support scientific investigations.
 
(2) As students learn science skills, they identify the importance of components of the natural world including rocks, soils, water, and atmospheric gases. They observe the direction and position of objects as they are pushed and pulled, and movement of the Earth's surface as examples of change caused by a force. Students investigate magnetism and gravity. In addition, students explore organisms' needs, habitats, and competition with other organisms within their ecosystem.
 
(3) Science is a way of learning about the natural world. Students should know how science has built a vast body of changing and increasing knowledge described by physical, mathematical, and conceptual models, and also should know that science may not answer all questions.
 
(4) A system is a collection of cycles, structures, and processes that interact. Students should understand a whole in terms of its components and how these components relate to each other and to the whole. All systems have basic properties that can be described in terms of space, time, energy, and matter. Change and constancy occur in systems and can be observed and measured as patterns. These patterns help to predict what will happen next and can change over time.
 
(5) Investigations are used to learn about the natural world. Students should understand that certain types of questions can be answered by investigations, and that methods, models, and conclusions built from these investigations change as new observations are made. Models of objects and events are tools for understanding the natural world and can show how systems work. They have limitations and based on new discoveries are constantly being modified to more closely reflect the natural world.