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Massachusetts Standards

Massachusetts 3rd Grade Math Standards

All 25 Massachusetts math standards for 3rd grade, each explained in plain English. The official wording is in Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's document, linked at the end of this page.

25 standards

Operations and Algebraic Thinking

9 standards
3.OA.A.1
Explain a product like 5 × 7 as the total of 5 groups with 7 in each, and describe a real situation it fits, like 5 boxes of 7 crayons.
3.OA.A.2
Read a division fact as sharing or grouping, like 56 ÷ 8 as 56 objects split into 8 equal shares.
Common Core 3.OA.2
3.OA.A.3
Solve word problems about equal groups, arrays and measurements by multiplying or dividing within 100.
Common Core 3.OA.3
3.OA.A.4
Find the missing number in a multiplication or division fact, like 8 × ? = 48.
Common Core 3.OA.4
3.OA.B.5
Use number properties as multiplication strategies, like swapping factors, grouping three factors either way, splitting 8 × 7 into 8 × 5 plus 8 × 2, or multiplying by 1.
3.OA.B.6
Solve a division problem by finding the missing factor, like 32 ÷ 8 as what times 8 makes 32.
Common Core 3.OA.6
3.OA.C.7
Multiply and divide within 100 quickly using related facts or properties, and by year end know all one-digit products and their division facts by heart.
3.OA.D.8
Solve two-step word problems with whole-number answers using all four operations, write an equation with a letter for the unknown, and check by estimating or rounding.
3.OA.D.9
Spot patterns in the addition and multiplication tables and explain them, like why 4 times any number is even.
Common Core 3.OA.9

Number and Operations in Base Ten

3 standards
3.NBT.A.1
Round whole numbers to the nearest ten or hundred, like 347 to 350 or to 300.
Common Core 3.NBT.1
3.NBT.A.2
Add and subtract within 1,000 quickly and accurately with place value strategies and written methods, number properties, or how adding and subtracting undo each other.
3.NBT.A.3
Multiply a one-digit number by a multiple of ten from 10 to 90, like 5 × 60 or 9 × 80.
Common Core 3.NBT.3

Number and Operations—Fractions

3 standards
3.NF.A.1
Explain that 1/b is one part of a whole cut into b equal parts, and that a/b is a of those parts, like 3/4 being three 1/4 pieces.
3.NF.A.2
Place fractions on a number line by splitting the space from 0 to 1 into equal parts and counting them off.
Common Core 3.NF.2
3.NF.A.3
Tell when two fractions are equivalent, like 1/2 and 2/4, write whole numbers as fractions, and compare fractions with the same numerator or denominator.
Common Core 3.NF.3

Measurement and Data

8 standards
3.MD.A.1
Tell time to the nearest minute and solve word problems about how many minutes pass between two times.
Common Core 3.MD.1
3.MD.A.2
Measure and estimate liquid volume in liters and mass in grams and kilograms, and solve one-step word problems with them, like using a drawing of a measuring beaker.
3.MD.B.3
Make scaled picture graphs and bar graphs, like each square standing for 5 pets, and use bar graphs to answer one- and two-step how many more or fewer questions.
3.MD.B.4
Measure lengths with rulers marked in halves and fourths of an inch, and show the data on a line plot, or dot plot, scaled in wholes, halves, or fourths.
3.MD.C.5
Understand area as the number of unit squares that cover a flat shape with no gaps or overlaps.
Common Core 3.MD.5
3.MD.C.6
Find the area of a shape by counting unit squares, in square centimeters, meters, inches, or feet, or in nonstandard units like sticky notes.
3.MD.C.7
Find the area of a rectangle by multiplying its side lengths, and find the area of an L-shaped figure by splitting it into rectangles and adding.
Common Core 3.MD.7
3.MD.D.8
Find a polygon's perimeter from its side lengths, find a missing side length, and show that rectangles with the same perimeter can have different areas.
Common Core 3.MD.8

Geometry

2 standards
3.G.A.1
Sort shapes by sides and right or non-right angles, see rhombuses, rectangles, squares, and trapezoids as quadrilaterals, and draw four-sided shapes that are none of these.
3.G.A.2
Cut shapes into pieces of equal area and describe each piece as a unit fraction of the shape, like 4 equal pieces each being 1/4 of the whole.

The official Massachusetts documents

The plain-English lines on this page are EMStudio's own explanations of Massachusetts's standards, not the official wording, which Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education publishes in the documents above. Codes and strand names identify each standard.