3rd Grade -
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"What should my child know and be able to do at the end of 3rd grade?"
Importance of
Communication and Math 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 page 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 –
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By the end of 3rd grade, a student should know the following:
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
- Retell stories and information in
own words.
- 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 on a daily basis.
- Read a variety of print materials
such as novels, short stories, atlases, newspapers, and electronic print
- Identify his/her own reading
strengths and areas for growth.
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
- Plan the order of the ideas and
details in a piece of writing.
- 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.
Math Concepts and Skills
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By the end of 3rd grade, a student should know the following:
Number Sense and Computation
- Break down any four-digit number
into multiples of 1, 10, 100, and 1000.
- 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
Geometric Sense
- Identify and describe attributes of
two- and three-dimensional geometric figures using appropriate words such as
parallel, symmetric, congruent, similar, and perpendicular.
- 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
- Choose and use an efficient method
for collecting data, for example, observation, surveys, or measurements.
- 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 – (Patterns and Functions)
- 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.