Information for Families and Caregivers of 3rd Grade Students (webpage)

Unit 1: Addition & Subtraction Patterns

Learning Targets

• Students solve one-step subtraction problems within 100
• Students fluently add and subtract to 20 using mental strategies
• Students solve addition story problems with sums to 100 involving lengths given in the same units
• Students use strategies based on place value and the relationship between addition and subtraction to fluently add and subtract within 1,000

Unit 2: Introduction to Multiplication

Learning Targets

• Students solve multiplication story problems with products to 100 involving equal groups and arrays
• Students multiply using the commutative property
• Students fluently multiply with products to 100 using strategies
• Students identify patterns in basic multiplication facts and in the multiplication table

Unit 3: Multi-Digit Addition & Subtraction

Learning Targets

• Students solve two-step story problems using addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division
• Students write equations with a letter standing for the unknown quantity
• Students round whole numbers to the nearest ten or the nearest hundred
• Students estimate sums and differences to approximate solutions to problems

Unit 4: Measurement & Fractions

Learning Targets

• Students solve two-step story problems using addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division
• Students demonstrate understanding of a unit fraction 1/b 
• Students write a whole number as a fraction and recognize fractions that are equivalent to whole numbers
• Student locate and place fractions on a number line
• Students identify equivalent fractions by comparing their sizes or their locations on a number line
• Students tell and write time to the nearest minute
• Students estimate and measure liquid volume and mass in metric units

Unit 5: Multiplication, Division, & Area

Learning Targets

• Students write story problems to describe situations to match a multiplication or division equation
• Students solve for the unknown in a multiplication or division equation involving 3 whole numbers  
• Students fluently multiply and divide within 100
• Students solve two-step story problems using multiplication and division
• Students demonstrate an understanding that unit squares are used to measure the areas of plane figures
• Students find the area of rectangles by multiplying the side lengths

Unit 6: Geometry

Learning Targets

• Students find the perimeter of a polygon, given its side lengths
• Students create rectangles with the same perimeter but different areas and solve related story problems
• Students identify rhombuses, rectangles, and squares as quadrilaterals
• Students group shapes in different categories according to shared attributes
• Students partition shapes into equal areas and express the area of each part of a whole as a unit fraction of the whole

Unit 7: Extending Multiplication & Fractions

Learning Targets

• Students multiply using the commutative, associative, and distributive properties
• Students solve two-step story problems using addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division
• Students assess the reasonableness of answers to story problems using mental computation, rounding, and other estimation strategies
• Students multiply whole numbers by multiples of 10 from 10 to 90
• Students locate fractions on a number line and identify equivalent fractions
• Students use the area model for multiplication to illustrate the distributive property
• Students express the area of each equal part of a whole as a unit fraction of the whole

Unit 8: Bridge Design & Construction: Data Collection & Analysis

Learning Targets

• Students compare two fractions with the same numerator or denominator
• Students measure time intervals in minutes and solve story problems involving minutes
• Students generate measurement data by measuring lengths to the nearest half or fourth of an inch
• Students find the area of a rectangle by multiplying the side lengths
• Students identify and draw quadrilaterals as well as group shapes with shared attributes 

Life Science: Fossils & Changing Environments Unit (Animals through Time)

Learning Targets

• Students explore the idea that the rock under our feet sometimes contains fossils, and investigate how these fossils reveal changes in habitats through time
• Students learn how we can infer what the outside of an animal looked like by using clues about their skeleton
• Students learn how fossilized animal tracks can tell us a great deal about the animals that left them

Life Science: Life Cycles Unit (Circle of Life)

Learning Targets

• Students create models of several different animal life cycles and compare them to one another. They use these models to discover the pattern that all animals are born, grow, can have babies, and eventually die
• Students obtain and evaluate information about mosquitoes from different sources. They analyze and interpret information about the mosquito life cycle to reduce the number of mosquitoes that live in a certain area
• Students model the structure and function of flower parts that are responsible for creating seeds
• Students explore the function of fruits in plants and practice classification
• Students play a game that models the stages of the plant life cycle. After playing the game students use the model to show how changes to one part of the life cycle affect all other stages

Life Science: Heredity, Survival, & Selection Unit (Fates of Traits)

Learning Targets

• Students investigate how human beings have modified plants based on our knowledge of how plants change from generation to generation
• Students analyze the traits of parent dogs and their offspring, constructing an explanation about which traits a puppy gets from each parent
• Students compare the structures of lizards that live on an island. They simulate multiple generations of these lizards, and analyze and interpret the data to understand how these structures aid in their survival
• Students observe animals that live in groups in order to obtain, evaluate, and communicate information about animal social behavior. Students use evidence to show how animals form groups to help them survive
• Students measure and compare their own physical traits (arm strength, balance, and height) and analyze the information to construct an explanation for how the environment can influence traits

Earth & Space Science: Weather & Climate Unit (Stormy Skies)

Learning Targets

• Students obtain and combine information that water can change from liquid to gas, but that it is always made of tiny drops. Clouds are made of water that has evaporated
• Students make observations of clouds and develop a tool to make predictions about what kind of weather might happen next
• Students gather winter temperature data from three different towns. They represent the data in a table to compare the weather and decide which town is the best candidate to host a snow fort festival in future years
• Students obtain and combine information to describe the different climate regions of the world
• Students design and build solutions that reduce the hazards associated with strong winds that could damage buildings

Physical Science: Forces, Motion, & Magnets (Invisible Forces)

Learning Targets

• Students develop a mental model of the nature of forces and motion and use that model to explain the behavior of an elastic jumper
• Students develop and design a bridge to be as strong as possible while working with limited materials
• Students make observations and measurements of a trapeze model. Then, using that information they predict the motion of a real trapeze
• Students investigate the properties of magnets and the fact that they exert forces that act at a distance
• Students investigate magnetic attraction and repulsion, and design a magnetic lock in the hands-on activity