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What Language Arts Should a 3rd Grader Know?

In third grade, students should be fluent readers who are ready to dive into chapter books and take their reading comprehension skills to the next level. Typically, third grade language arts studies will include:

Use a number of comprehension strategies to answer questions.

Compare and contrast information.

Understand idioms, prefixes, and suffixes in order to expand their vocabulary .

Use transition words when writing.

Use proper punctuation and capitalization.

First Grade Reading Goals/Objectives

Now that phonics and reading skills are pretty much mastered, it’s time for your child to focus on their comprehension skills. Using the right strategies to break down text, ask questions, make inferences and summarize are all concepts that students will focus on this year.

The ideal language arts curriculum for third grade will help your child address these and many more objectives, including but not limited to:

Describe characters, identify the main idea and use supporting details.

Read and understand a variety of genres such as fiction, non-fiction, poetry, fables, etc.

Use context clues to understand what a word means.

With the basics down, students are now moving on to writing longer, more detailed copy. This year, students will continue to grow their vocabulary and use these new words and phrases to make their writing as clear and concise as possible. A thorough third grade language arts curriculum will also help students with the writing objectives listed below.

The writing process: planning, drafting, revising, editing, publishing

Write longer text in chronological order using transition words

Write different types of text: opinion, informative, narrative, etc.

Writing Goals/Objectives

Pencil and notepad

Grammar Goals/Objectives

Good writing isn’t possible without a solid understanding of grammar rules. This year, students will gain a deeper understanding of concepts that will help them communicate more effectively, both in writing and orally. Your language arts curriculum for third grade should teach your child how to:

Use proper punctuation, capitalization, and noun and verb forms (singular/plural)

Understand parts of speech, prefixes, suffixes, homophones, etc.

Know the different sentence types

A third grade language arts curriculum will build on what students have learned in the last few years. Your child’s grammar, and writing skills are also expected to expand as they write longer copy with more detail and transitions.

This page will give you an overview of the objectives and goals your child’s third grade language arts curriculum should aim to achieve.

 3rd Grade Language Arts Scope & Sequence

  • Chapter 1: “Number Sense”
    Lesson 1: Read Numbers – 2 Activities Lesson 2: Compare Numbers – 2 Activities Lesson 3: Ordinal Numbers – 2 Activities Lesson 4: Count Numbers – 2 Activities Lesson 5: Place Value – 2 Activities Lesson 6: Compare with Place Value – 2 Activities Lesson 7: Count by Twos and Fives – 2 Activities Lesson 8: Odd and Even Numbers – 2 Activities Chapter Test: Number Sense
  • Chapter 2: “Fractions”
    Lesson 1: Equal and Unequal Parts – 2 Activities Lesson 2: Halves and Fourths – 2 Activities Lesson 3: Thirds – 2 Activities Lesson 4: Equal Fractions – 2 Activities Chapter Test: Fractions
  • Chapter 3: “Operations”
    Lesson 1: Adding and Subtracting – 4 Activities Lesson 2: Place Value – 2 Activities Lesson 3: Equal Numbers – 2 Activities Lesson 4: One-digit Addition – 2 Activities Lesson 5: One-digit Subtraction – 2 Activities Lesson 6: Sum of Three Addends – 6 Activities Lesson 7: Two-digit Addition – 6 Activities Lesson 8: Zero as a Placeholder – 2 Activities Lesson 9: Addition and Subtraction Strategies – 7 Activities Lesson 10: One-Digit Word Problems – 2 Activities Lesson 11: Problem Solving Strategies – 2 Activities Lesson 12: Estimation Language – 2 Activities Lesson 13: Estimate – 3 Activities Chapter Test: Operations
  • Chapter 4: “Money”
    Lesson 1: Coin Values – 2 Activities Lesson 2: Count Money – 2 Activities Lesson 3: Model Money Amounts – 2 Activities Lesson 4: Add and Subtract Money – 3 Activities Chapter Test: Money
  • Chapter 5: “Patterns”
    Lesson 1: Sort Using One Attribute – 2 Activities Lesson 2: Sort Using Two Attributes – 2 Activities Lesson 3: Rules for Sorting – 2 Activities Lesson 4: Build Patterns – 2 Activities Lesson 5: Classify Patterns – 2 Activities Lesson 6: Picture and Number Patterns – 2 Activities Lesson 7: Repeating and Growing Patterns – 2 Activities Lesson 8: Patterns on a Hundreds Chart – 2 Activities Lesson 9: Skip Counting – 2 Activities Lesson 10: Extend Number Patterns – 2 Activities Chapter Test: Patterns
  • Chapter 6: “Algebra”
    Lesson 1: Order Property – 2 Activities Lesson 2: Add and Subtract Numbers – 2 Activities Lesson 3: Fact Families – 2 Activities Lesson 4: Number Sentences – 2 Activities Lesson 5: Equal and Unequal – 2 Activities Lesson 6: Greater Than and Less Than – 2 Activities Lesson 7: Solve for Unknown Numbers – 3 Activities Chapter Test: Algebra
  • Chapter 7: “Shapes”
    Lesson 1: Straight and Curved Lines – 2 Activities Lesson 2: Open and Closed Shapes – 2 Activities Lesson 3: Plane and Solid Shapes – 4 Activities Lesson 4: Special Plane Shapes – 2 Activities Lesson 5: Attributes of Plane Shapes – 2 Activities Lesson 6: Name Solid Shapes – 2 Activities Lesson 7: Attributes of Solid Shapes – 2 Activities Lesson 8: Congruent Shapes – 3 Activities Chapter Test: Shapes
  • Chapter 8: “Positions”
    Lesson 1: Positions of Objects – 2 Activities Lesson 2: Direction Words – 2 Activities Lesson 3: Position Words – 2 Activities Lesson 4: The Number Line – 2 Activities Chapter Test: Positions
  • Chapter 9: “Using Shapes”
    Lesson 1: Slides and Turns – 2 Activities Lesson 2: Congruent Shapes – 2 Activities Lesson 3: Symmetry – 2 Activities Chapter Test: Using Shapes
  • Chapter 10: “Spatial Sense”
    Lesson 1: Build Shapes – 6 Activities Lesson 2: Plane and Solid Shapes – 2 Activities Lesson 3: Perimeter and Area – 2 Activities Lesson 4: Shapes Around Us – 2 Activities Lesson 5: Pattern Blocks – 2 Activities Chapter Test: Spatial Sense
  • Chapter 11: “Time”
    Lesson 1: Calendar – 2 Activities Lesson 2: Passage of Time – 2 Activities Lesson 3: Tools for Telling Time – 2 Activities Lesson 4: Time to the Hour and Half-hour – 2 Activities Lesson 5: Time to the Hour and Half-hour – 2 Activities Lesson 6: Elapsed Time – 2 Activities Chapter Test: Time
  • Chapter 12: “Length”
    Lesson 1: Non-standard Units – 2 Activities Lesson 2: Compare Lengths – 2 Activities Lesson 3: Customary Units – 2 Activities Lesson 4: Tools and Units – 2 Activities Lesson 5: Metric Units – 2 Activities Chapter Test: Length
  • Chapter 13: “Weight”
    Lesson 1: Non-standard Units – 2 Activities Lesson 2: Compare Weights – 2 Activities Lesson 3: Customary Units – 3 Activities Lesson 4: Metric Units – 2 Activities Chapter Test: Weight
  • Chapter 14: “Capacity”
    Lesson 1: Non-standard Units – 2 Activities Lesson 2: Compare Capacity – 2 Activities Lesson 3: Customary Units – 2 Activities Lesson 4: Metric Units – 2 Activities Chapter Test: Capacity
  • Chapter 15: “Temperature”
    Lesson 1: Measure Temperature – 2 Activities Lesson 2: Compare Temperature – 2 Activities Chapter Test: Temperature
  • Chapter 16: “Graphing”
    Lesson 1: Tally Table – 2 Activities Lesson 2: Pictographs – 2 Activities Lesson 3: Bar Graphs – 2 Activities Chapter Test: Graphing
  • Chapter 17: “Using Data”
    Lesson 1: Compare Data – 2 Activities Lesson 2: Make Predictions – 2 Activities Chapter Test: Using Data
  • Chapter 18: “Probability”
    Lesson 1: Certain or Impossible – 2 Activities Lesson 2: Most and Least Likely – 2 Activities Chapter Test: Probability
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