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North Carolina Standards

North Carolina 3rd Grade Math Standards

All 20 North Carolina math standards for 3rd grade, each explained in plain English. The official wording is in North Carolina Department of Public Instruction's document, linked at the end of this page.

20 standards

Operations and Algebraic Thinking

7 standards
NC.3.OA.1
Read 4 x 6 as 4 groups of 6 and show such products with factors up to 10 using arrays, repeated addition, breaking a factor apart or number properties.
NC.3.OA.2
Explain a division like 24 ÷ 4 = 6 as groups and how many in each, with one-digit divisors and answers, using arrays, repeated subtraction or splitting a factor.
NC.3.OA.3
Solve one-step multiplication and division story problems with numbers up to 10, showing them with arrays, pictures or equations like 7 x ? = 56.
NC.3.OA.6
Find a missing factor by dividing or by rethinking it as multiplication, like solving 32 ÷ 8 by asking 8 times what makes 32.
NC.3.OA.7
Multiply and divide with numbers up to 10 quickly, knowing all the times facts from memory and using fact families to find a missing number, like 6 x ? = 42.
NC.3.OA.8
Solve two-step story problems that add, subtract or multiply, like 3 packs of 8 pens minus 5 given away, writing an equation with a letter for the unknown.
NC.3.OA.9
Find and explain patterns on a hundreds chart or times table, like every multiple of 4 being even.

Number and Operations in Base Ten

2 standards
NC.3.NBT.2
Add and subtract whole numbers up to 1,000, estimating to check answers, using expanded form and the way addition and subtraction undo each other.
NC.3.NBT.3
Multiply a one-digit number by a multiple of 10 from 10 to 90 with models and place value, like seeing 4 x 60 as 4 groups of 6 tens, or 240.

Number and Operations – Fractions

4 standards
NC.3.NF.1
Explain that a unit fraction like 1/4 is one of the equal parts of a whole cut into 2, 3, 4, 6 or 8 parts, and show it on area and length models.
NC.3.NF.2
Use area models and number lines to explain the top number of a fraction with denominator 2, 3, 4, 6 or 8, like 3/4 being three 1/4 parts or three 1/4 jumps from 0.
NC.3.NF.3
Show equivalent fractions with models using halves, fourths, eighths, thirds and sixths, like 2/4 = 1/2, 6/6 = 1 and 3 = 3/1.
NC.3.NF.4
Use models to compare two fractions in halves, thirds, fourths, sixths or eighths that share a top or bottom number, like 3/8 < 3/4, when both are of the same whole.

Measurement and Data

6 standards
NC.3.MD.1
Read clocks to the exact minute and write the time, then solve story problems adding or subtracting minutes within the same hour, like 3:10 plus 25 minutes.
NC.3.MD.2
Estimate and measure in customary units, like length to the quarter inch, liquids in cups or gallons and weight in pounds, and solve one-step problems with them.
NC.3.MD.3
Collect data with up to four categories, show it in a frequency table or a scaled picture or bar graph, and solve one- and two-step how many more or fewer problems.
NC.3.MD.5
Cover a rectangle with whole-number sides in unit squares, with no gaps or overlaps, then count the squares to get its area.
NC.3.MD.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
NC.3.MD.8
Solve perimeter problems for polygons, adding the side lengths to find the perimeter or working back from the perimeter to find a missing side.

Geometry

1 standard
NC.3.G.1
Combine and split triangles and four-sided shapes, and draw examples and non-examples of rhombuses, rectangles, squares, parallelograms and trapezoids.

The official North Carolina documents

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