3rd Grade Reading/Writing and Math

What should my child know and be able to do at the end of third grade ?

Importance of Math and Communication Skills

No subjects in school are more important to a student’s future success than reading, writing, and mathematics. Without these skills, students will have a more difficult time learning in the next grade. They must know how to use reading, writing, and math in all their school subjects, including art, music, science, social studies, health, and physical education. Our district has identified the most important for success in the next grade.

This pamphlet describes what we want your child to learn in reading, writing, and math by the end of the year. It may give you some ideas about specific skills you would like to help your child practice. As you will see, our expectations are high. There may be content, such as geometry, that you would not have expected so early in your child’s education. There may also be terms which are unfamiliar to you. If there are parts you are unsure of, please ask your child’s teacher for more information.

One of our goals as a school district is to have as many children as possible reach these expectations – or learn even more – by the end of each school year.

Communication Skills – Reading/Writing

By the end of third grade, a student should:

Develop word knowledge and reading strategies

~ Understand words with multiple meanings and words with similar and opposite meanings.

~ Use many strategies to find meaning of words, such as looking for prefixes, suffixes, and

common roots or word families, and using dictionaries and other resources.

~ Read aloud fluently.

Understand the meaning of what is read

~ summarize what is read, both orally and in writing.

~ Read and follow directions accurately.

~ Look for main ideas and supporting details when reading.

~ Understand the difference between fact and opinion.

~ Gather and organize information from several sources, such as web sites and print.

Build habits of a thoughtful reader

~ Read independently every day.

~ Read a variety of types of writing, including fiction and non fiction, from both books and

electronic print.

~ Identify his/her own reading strategies and set goals for improvement with help from an

adult.

Write clearly and effectively

~ Write for a variety of purposes, for example, poetry, stories, reports, and responses to

reading.

~ Stay focused on an idea and choose information or details to add to the idea.

~ Understand and use paragraphs to group ideas.

~ Lead the reader through the writing with transition words, such as first, next, then.

~ Build knowledge of correct spelling through study of word roots, prefixes, and suffixes.

~ Use commas to make reading clearer, for example, commas in a series.

~ Attend to confusing words where meaning or usage determines spelling, for example,

to, too, two; its, it’s; their, there, they’re.

~ Write legibly (typically, cursive writing is learned in grade three.

Use processes and habits of a thoughtful writer

~ Gather information and take notes to help organize thoughts.

~ Narrow focus; sort important from unimportant details.

~ Use technology tools that help with the writing process.

~ Use resources such as a computer spellchecker to proofread for accuracy.

~ Share writing with others.

~ Keep a notebook of interesting/favorite words, notes, and ideas.

Mathematics Concepts and Skills

By the end of third grade, a student should know the following:

Number Sense and Computation

~ Know the value of each number in a three-digit number, and build it with base-ten blocks.

~ Order numbers from 50-100.

~ Understand the basic properties of numbers, such as odd, even.

~ Mentally add tens and hundreds to a number

~ Demonstrate the meaning of the fractions ¼, 1/3, and ½ as “part of a whole.”

~ Understand the meaning of multiplication.

~ Understand the meaning of division.

~ Know multiplication facts through 6 x 10 plus the ten times tables fluently; develop

fluency with division facts.

~ Use a calculator correctly and competently.

Measurement

~ Tell and write time to the nearest minute from both digital and analog clocks.

~ Measure length using standard whole units and common fractional parts.

~ Name and know the value of all U.S. coins and paper currency up to $10.00; determine

the exact value of an assortment of currency totaling $50.00 or less.

Geometric Sense

~ Name common three-dimensional shapes (cone, cube, sphere); identify one or two attributes of each using correct geometric vocabulary.

~ Identify one line of symmetry in a simple design.

~ Move a patter block through a series of given movements and identify these movements

using common transformation vocabulary, such as slide, flip, turn.

Probability and Statistics

~ Collect, organize, and display data in line plots, line graphs, and bar graphs.

~ Explain the basic notion of sampling.

~ Make a systematic list to determine all possible outcomes of a very simple event, such

as flipping two coins.

~ Understand basic notions of probability in informal terms, for example,

likelihood, certainty, predictability.

Algebraic Sense

~ Accurately identify, represent, extend, and describe simple patterns (repeating,

growing, and shrinking.

~ Look for number patterns in tables and charts as a problem solving strategy.