Grade Three
Our Teachers
About Grade 3
Welcome to the wonderful world of third grade! As you travel through third grade, you will better your reading, writing, spelling, and math skills. You will learn about life cycles, animal classification, weather, climate, water, soil, and plants. You will learn all about your home state of Massachusetts, from the Wampanoag way of life, to colonization, to present day life. Multiplication and division are new math concepts that third graders get excited about exploring and understanding!
The Nantucket Intermediate School teaches to the standards of the Massachusetts Department of Education. The information below helps families understand those standards and measures of progress. The information is taken from the document linked at the bottom of the page.
English Language Arts & Literacy
New Expectations for Grade Three
- Refer to specific parts of a text when speaking or writing about what it means. For example, when reading a story, explain how a character’s words or actions show that she is brave.
- Notice differences between literal and figurative language. For example, the “step” is literal in with the next step he reached the finish line but figurative in the next step is finding a partner.
- Organize writing in ways that help readers understand. For example, use linking words and phrases like “another reason” and “after that” to connect ideas and information.
- Improve writing by making changes. Changes can be larger (like explaining ideas more fully) or smaller (like fixing spelling mistakes).
By the End of Third Grade, Students Can
- Stay on topic and ask and answer questions during class discussions.
- Notice differences between written and spoken English.
- Sound out words with two or more syllables. Use story clues to guess what words mean.
- Use a simple dictionary to find out how a word is spelled or what it means.
- Read aloud smoothly, not just one word at a time. Notice and try to fix mistakes while reading.
- Use pictures, headings, and other visual clues to help understand a story or article.
- Use books as well as other sources (like videos and websites) when doing research.
- Read two or more books on the same topic. Notice what is the same and different.
- Read traditional stories, like myths. Understand a story’s lesson or message for readers.
- Describe characters in a story. Explain how their actions affect what happens.
Mathematics
Focus Areas for Third Grade
- Understand multiplication and division and how they are related. For example, use multiplication to find the cost of 10 apples and division to find the cost of 1 apple.
- Understand fractions and how they represent real-world situations. For example, use fractions to compare how much pizza two people eat.
- Understand connections between multiplication and the areas of shapes. For example, find the area of a room using floor tiles.
- Describe, analyze, and compare shapes like rectangles and squares. For example, explain that any shape with four sides can be called a quadrilateral.
By the End of Third Grade, Students Can:
- Solve two-step word problems using multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction.
- Explain what the answer to a division problem means in the problem’s context.
- Know multiplication and division facts up to 9 x 9 = 81 and 81 ÷ 9 = 9.
- Fluently (quickly and correctly) multiply and divide numbers up to 100.
- Fluently (quickly and correctly) add and subtract numbers under 1,000 using various methods.
- Understand that fractions are numbers that represent parts of a whole.
- Explain how to know whether two simple fractions (like ½ and 2/4) are equal.
- Use symbols to compare simple fractions: for example, ½ > 1/3 or 2/5 < 3/5.
- Place fractions on a number line along with whole numbers (like 2 and 5).
- Solve problems using units of time (like minutes), mass (like grams), and volume (like liters).
- Understand and use area and perimeter. Find the area and perimeter of shapes like rectangles.
- Sort shapes into categories: for example, shapes with right (90°) angles.
Science, Technology, & Engineering
Focus Areas for Third Grade
- Understand connections among humans, earth systems, and the environment. For example, think about how people can reduce damage caused by weather.
- Understand the different life cycles of plants and animals. For example, compare the life cycles of a sunflower, a bird, and a frog.
- Understand life and environments that existed on Earth long ago. For example, use fossils to understand that some types of plants and animals no longer exist.
- Understand the concept of force and how forces sometimes balance each
- other out. For example, explore how magnets push or pull each other.
By the End of Third Grade, Students Can
- Use graphs and charts to talk about weather patterns around the world.
- Understand that plants and animals can grow and reproduce in different ways.
- Explain how specific characteristics help living things survive (like how thorns protect roses from being eaten by animals).
- Explore the difference between inherited traits (like eye color) and traits caused by something in the environment (like when a plant is small because it gets too little sunlight).
- Understand that when an environment changes, some plants and animals survive and reproduce, some move to other places, and some die.
- Explore how objects move and affect each other. Explain how they move differently over rough and smooth surfaces.
- Draw or build models to show possible solutions to a problem (like how to design safe playground equipment).
History & Social Studies
Focus Areas for Third Grade
- Explain self-government and how it might look in a classroom (with rules, rights, and responsibilities).
- Research the early history of your town or city and of Massachusetts and New England.
- Understand relationships among Native Peoples, Europeans, and Africans in early Massachusetts.
- Explain how the people and events contributed to the American Revolution.
By the End of Third Grade, Students Can
- Explain how local (town and city) governments are organized in Massachusetts and how to participate in them.
- Find the Northeast United States on a map. Find and name the New England states.
- Describe the various Native Peoples who live or lived in Massachusetts and New England.
- Explain how the Native Peoples in this area first met Europeans in the 1500s and 1600s. Describe what the Europeans thought about the Native Peoples and the environment.
- Explain why the Pilgrims settled in the Plymouth Colony. Describe the Mayflower Compact, the challenges Pilgrims faced, and their relationships with Native Peoples.
- Use primary sources (like letters and journal entries) to analyze daily life in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Name the early leaders of the Puritans and describe the Puritans’ relationships with Native Peoples.
- Describe the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution (including the Bill of Rights), and the Massachusetts Constitution.
From the MA Department of Education
