Third Grade

A family guide to the standards for third grade developed by Kentucky Department of Education can be found here.

In third grade your child's learning is divided into a progression of units or clusters that will lead to understanding of mathematics in four major areas:

1. Operations and Algebraic Thinking

• Students develop an understanding of the meanings of multiplication and division of whole numbers through activities and problems involving equal-sized groups, arrays, and area models.
• Students use properties of operations to calculate products of whole numbers when multiplying. They learn increasingly sophisticated strategies based on these properties to solve multiplication and division problems involving single-digit factors. By comparing a variety of solution strategies, students learn the relationship between multiplication and division.

2. Number Sense and Operations - Fractions

• Students develop an understanding of fractions, beginning with unit fractions.
• Students view fractions, in general, as being built out of unit fractions.
• Students use fractions along with visual fraction models to represent parts of a whole. They understand that the size of a fractional part is relative to the size of the whole (e.g., 1/2 of the paint in a small bucket could be less paint than 1/3 of the paint in a larger bucket; but 1/3 of a ribbon is longer than 1/5 of the same ribbon because when the ribbon is divided into 3 equal parts, the parts are longer than when the ribbon is divided into 5 equal parts).
• Students use fractions to represent numbers equal to, less than, and greater than one.
• Students solve problems that involve comparing fractions by using visual fraction models and strategies based on noticing equal numerators or denominators.

3. Measurement and Data

• Students recognize area as an attribute of two-dimensional shapes or sections.
• Students measure the area of a shape by finding the total number of the same-size units of area required to cover the shape without gaps or overlaps (a square with sides of unit length being the standard unit for measuring area).
• Students understand that rectangular arrays can be decomposed into identical rows or into identical columns. By breaking rectangles into rectangular arrays of squares, students connect area to multiplication, and justify using multiplication to determine the area of a rectangle.

4. Geometry

• Students describe, analyze and compare properties of two-dimensional shapes. They will compare and classify shapes by their sides and angles, and connect these with definitions of shapes.
• Students relate their fraction work to geometry by expressing the area of part of a shape as a unit fraction of the whole.

To access math resources to support your child, use the drop menu from above or click here.

In the area of Reading/Writing, there are five critical components in which your child will focus his/her learning as a third grader. The instruction in your child's classroom through the reading units will help your child increase skill development in the following:

1. Phonics and Word Recognition:

• Students know and apply grade level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.
• Students identify, decode and know the meaning of words with the most common prefixes and suffixes, including Latin suffixes.
• Students decode multisyllabic words.
• Students read grade appropriate, irregularly spelled words.

2. Fluency

• Students read fluently (accuracy, speed and prosody - the patterns of rhythm and sound) on grade level to support comprehension.
• Students read grade level text with purpose and understanding.
• Students fluently read grade level prose and poetry orally on successive readings.
• Students use context to confirm or self correct word recognition and understanding, rereading as necessary.

3. Reading Comprehension (Literature and Informational)

• Students ask and answer questions and make and support logical inferences to construct meaning from the text.
• Students identify and cite implicit and explicit information from a summary to determine the theme, lesson learned, moral or central idea including but not limited to fables, folktales/myths from diverse cultures or a text.
• Students describe characters in a story, including but not limited to their traits, motivations, actions or feelings, and how they affect the plot.
• Students describe the relationship between individuals, a series of historical events, scientific ideas or concepts or steps in technical procedures over the course of a text.
• Students determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, distinguishing literal from nonliteral language, including but not limited to idioms and hyperboles, and describe how those words and phrases shape meaning.
• Students describe and provide evidence for how parts of the text contribute to the overall structure of poems, stories and dramas, including but not limited to linear, non-linear and circular structures.
• Students distinguish their own perspective from that of the narrator or those of the characters, and describe how various perspectives shape the content of the text.
• Students determine the meaning of general academic words and phrases in a grade level text, and describe how those words and phrases shape meaning.
• Students identify and describe informational text structures, including comparison, cause/effect and problem/solution structures, and describe the logical connection between particular sentences and paragraphs in a text and how they contribute to the overall structure.
• Students distinguish their own perspective from that of the author of a text, and describe how various perspectives shape the content and style of a text.
• Students explain how the specific aspects of a text's illustrations contribute to an effect, including but not limited to creating mood, character and setting.
• Students identify and explain how specific visuals, including but not limited to diagrams, graphs, photographs and side bars, contribute to the meaning and clarity of a text.
• Students describe how reasons and evidence support specific claims the author makes in a text.
• Students explain the relationship between information from two or more texts on the same theme or topic.
• Students compare/contrast the themes, settings and plots of stories written by the same author about the same or similar characters.
• By the end of the year, students flexibly use a variety of comprehension strategies (i.e., questioning, monitoring, visualizing, inferencing, summarizing, using prior knowledge, determining importance) to read, comprehend and analyze grade level appropriate, complex literary or informational texts independently and proficiently.

4. Handwriting and Composition Writing

• Students legibly form cursive letters, words and sentences with accepted norms.
• Students compose opinion pieces, informative and/or explanatory texts, and narratives using a combination of writing and digital resources.
• With guidance and support, students strengthen writing through peer/adult collaboration and add details through writing and/or pictures as needed.
• With guidance and support, students produce writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task and purpose.
• For opinion writing, students introduce the topic, followed by an opinion statement, create an organizational structure, provide reasons with elaborate details to support the opinion, use grade-appropriate transitions, provide a concluding section and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising and editing.
• For informative/explanatory writing, students introduce a topic and group related information together; include illustrations when useful to aiding comprehension, develop the topic with facts, definitions and details, use grade-appropriate conjunctions to develop text structure within sentences, use grade-appropriate transitions to develop text structures across paragraphs, provide a concluding section and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising and editing.
• For narrative writing, students establish a situation and introduce a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that reflects linear, non-linear and/or circular structure, use dialogue and descriptions of actions, thoughts and feelings to develop experiences and events or show the response of characters to situations, use temporal words and phrases to signal event order, create a sense of closure that follows the narrated experiences or events and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising and editing.
• With guidance and support from adults, students use a variety of digital resources to create and publish products, including collaboration with peers.
• Students conduct shared research and writing projects that build knowledge about a topic.
• Students summarize information from experiences or gather information from print and digital sources; take brief notes on information from various print and digital sources, and analyze by sorting into appropriate categories.
• Students compose routinely over extended time frames and shorter time frames for a variety of tasks, purposes and audiences.

5. Language and Vocabulary:

• When writing or speaking, students will demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage by:

a. explaining the function of nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs in a grade level text.

b. forming and using regular and irregular plural nouns.

c. using abstract nouns.

d. forming and using regular and irregular verbs.

e. using correct verb tenses.

f. ensuring subject-verb and pronoun-antecedent agreement.

g. forming and using comparative and superlative adjectives and adverbs, and choose between them depending on what is to be modified.

h. using coordinating and subordinating conjunctions.

i. producing simple, compound and complex sentences.

• When writing, students will capitalize appropriate words in titles, use commas in addresses, use commas and quotation marks in dialogue, use possessives, use conventional spelling for high-frequency words where suffixes are added to base words, use spelling patterns and generalizations in writing words and consult reference materials as needed to check correct spellings.
• Students use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading or listening.
• Students choose words and phrases for effect.
• Students recognize and observe differences between the conventions of spoken and written standard English.
• Students determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grade 3 reading and content, choosing flexibly from an array of strategies such as:

a. using sentence level context as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.

b. determining the meaning of the new word formed when a known affix is added to a known word.

c. using a known root word as a clue to the meaning of an unknown word with the same root.

d. using glossaries or beginning dictionaries to determine or clarify the precise meaning of key words and phrases.

e. acquiring and using grade appropriate conversational, general academic and domain specific words and phrases, including those that signal spatial and temporal relationships.

• Students demonstrate understanding of word relationships and nuances in word meanings by:

a. distinguishing the literal and nonliteral meanings of words and phrases in context.

b. demonstrating understanding of words by relating them to their synonyms and antonyms.

c. distinguishing shades of meaning among related words that describe degrees

of certainty.

To access reading and writing resources to support your child, use the drop menu from above or click here.