Areas of Study

Essential Learning for Third Grade

At the end of third grade students should be able to demonstrate mastery on the following:

   

Reading and Writing

  • Read fiction and expository text with fluency and comprehension

  • Read longer selections and chapter books independently

  • Use context clues and other strategies to read unfamiliar words

  • Summarize main points from fiction and informational text

  • Interpret fiction to identify theme or message

  • Distinguish cause and effect, fact and opinion, main idea, and supporting details

  • Infer word meaning from taught root words, suffixes, and prefixes

  • Use reference materials to locate information

  • Correctly spell studied words

  • Elaborate using descriptions and language patterns in own writing

  • Use all aspects of the writing process in producing own compositions and reports

  • Independently edit and revise own writing

  • Write a variety of works and discuss with others

Math

  • Use place value through 999,999 to order, compare, read, and write numbers

  • Compose and decompose numbers

  • Use fraction names and symbols to construct and compare fractional parts or sets including equivalent fractions

  • Use addition and subtraction in problem situations fluently

  • Know and use multiplication and division fact families through 12x12

  • Use models to solve division problems

  • Estimate solutions to addition and subtraction problems

  • Round whole numbers to the nearest ten or hundred

  • Identify and use patterns in tables, charts, graphs, number lines, geometry, and multiplication and division fact families to solve problems

  • Use lists, tables, and charts to express patterns and relationships between sets of numbers

  • Use formal geometry vocabulary such as symmetry, edge, vertex, angle, side, etc

  • Recognize congruency and symmetry

  • Locate whole numbers, halves, and fourths on a line

  • Tell time to the nearest minute

  • Select and use standard units of length, area, weight, and capacity to solve problems

  • Use a thermometer to measure temperature

  • Solve problems by collecting, organizing, displaying, and interpreting sets of data with pictographs and bar graphs

  • Use data to describe the likelihood of events

  • Solve multi-step problems using a plan and appropriate problem solving strategies and communicate about the mathematics through informal language

  • Use logical reasoning

 Science

  • Matter has measurable physical properties and those properties determine how matter is classified, changed, and used

  • Forces cause change and that energy exists in many forms

  • Earth consists of natural resources and its surface is constantly changing

  • There are recognizable patterns in the natural world and among objects in the sky

  • Organisms have characteristics that help them survive and can describe patterns, cycles, systems, and relationships within environments.

  • Organisms undergo similar life processes and have structures that help them within their environments

Social Studies

  • The forming of the way communities change, and the way needs are met in communities 

  • Identify and apply map skills using compass rose, grid system, legend and locate places on a map

  • Identify, compare and contrast good citizenship and relate how individuals accomplish this and be able to give specific examples

  • Identify landforms and natural resources and how people use and change each one

  • Explain how inventions have changed our lives

  • Know how local government officials are chosen and how local governments get money

  • Give examples of saving money and create a budget

  • Differentiate between supply and demand, profit and scarcity