In Grade 3, instructional time should focus on four critical areas:
- developing understanding of multiplication and division and strategies for multiplication and division within 100;
- developing understanding of fractions, especially unit fractions (fractions with numerator 1);
- developing understanding of the structure of rectangular arrays and of area; and
- describing and analyzing two-dimensional shapes.
Handout for Families - Introducing Illustrative Mathematics (Available in: Amharic, Arabic, Bengali, Haitian Creole, Spanish) | DESE Family Guide (Grade 3)
Supporting Your Child in 3rd Grade Math
The Council of the Great City Schools has created Parent Roadmaps to provide guidance to parents about what their child will be learning in Mathematics and how they can support that learning. These parent roadmaps also provide three-year snapshots showing how selected standards progress from year to year:
Parent Roadmap: Supporting Your Child in Mathematics
Guía Para Los Padres: Apoyando A Su Hijo En Matemáticas
Standards for Mathematical Practice
The 2011 framework introduces Standards for Mathematical Practice. These standards complement the content standards so that students increasingly engage with the subject matter as they grow in mathematical maturity and expertise throughout the elementary, middle, and high school years. These standards are the same at all grades from Prekindergarten to 12th grade.
An explanation of how the standards can be highlighted in Grade 3 can be found here.
These eight practices can be clustered into the following categories as shown in the chart below:
Habits of Mind of a Productive Mathematical Thinker:
MP.1: Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
MP.6: Attend to precision.
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Reasoning and Explaining
MP.2: Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
MP.3: Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
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Modeling and Using Tools
MP.4: Model with mathematics.
MP.5: Use appropriate tools strategically.
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Seeing Structure and Generalizing
MP.7: Look for and make use of structure.
MP.8: Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.
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Content Standards to be covered in Grade 3
The focus of instruction in Grade 3 is determined by the Massachusetts 2011 Mathematics Curriculum Framework, which can be found on the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's website.
For key points about the Common Core standards in mathematics, click here.