During third grade math lessons, students review the basic principles of addition and subtraction and learn new principles of multiplication and division. By the time a child graduates from the third grade, he should be able to multiple single and multi-digit numbers and be able to divide multi-digit numbers by one-digit numbers. A child should feel comfortable telling time on a clock to the quarter and half-hour and understand how to read a calendar. Students working at a standard rate will know how place values work, be able to differentiate shapes and understand how bar and line graphs convey facts in math.
Entering a third grade science class, students should understand how to observe, measure and classify objects, organisms and events while being able to plan, conduct and communicate the results of a simple scientific investigation. Building off this base of knowledge, students will learn how to measure an object's length, weight and temperature. A child will begin to understand the food chain and the basic forces behind earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricane and tornadoes. Children will also learn what an organism's basic needs are for survival and how they exist in their natural habitat.
Students working at a standard level will know who the President of the United States is and some of his duties, what state they live in and where that state is located on a map. A child should be able to identify the seven continents, the cardinal and intermediate directions on a map, the equator and prime meridian, the earth's four hemispheres and basic landforms.
By the end of the third grade, you should expect your child to be able to read longer books with more complex stories, understand the meaning of synonyms, homonyms and antonyms and identify main ideas from the reading. A child's understanding of grammar should improve, and she should be able to use punctuation to add meaning to text, write neatly in cursive, copy information from a chalkboard, use prefixes and suffixes and identify and understand compound words, nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs in a sentence.