Skip to main content
Wisconsin Standards

Wisconsin 3rd Grade Math Standards

All 24 Wisconsin math standards for 3rd grade, each explained in plain English. The official wording is in Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction's document, linked at the end of this page.

24 standards

Operations and Algebraic Thinking

8 standards
M.3.OA.A.1
Explain a product as a total of equal groups, like 5 x 7 as 5 groups of 7, and describe a real situation that 5 x 7 could stand for.
M.3.OA.A.2
Read a division fact as sharing or grouping, like 56 ÷ 8 as 56 objects split into 8 equal shares.
M.3.OA.A.3
Solve multiplying and dividing word problems within 100 about equal groups, arrays and measurements, using drawings and equations with an unknown.
M.3.OA.B.4
Use properties as strategies to multiply and divide, like finding 8 x 7 as 8 x 5 plus 8 x 2, without needing the formal property names.
M.3.OA.B.5
Solve a division problem by finding the missing factor, like 32 ÷ 8 as what times 8 makes 32.
M.3.OA.C.6
Multiply and divide within 100 by reasoning, like using 8 x 5 = 40 to find 40 ÷ 5, and quickly handle facts with 0, 1, 2, 5 and 10.
M.3.OA.D.7
Solve two-step word problems with the four operations, write one or two equations with a letter for the unknown, and check answers by estimating.
M.3.OA.D.8
Find patterns in addition and multiplication tables and explain them with properties, like why 4 times any number is always even.

Number and Operations in Base Ten

3 standards
M.3.NBT.A.1
Estimate answers to real problems with whole numbers within 1,000 using mental math, friendly numbers or rounding, and judge if the estimate is close enough.
M.3.NBT.A.2
Find sums and differences within 1,000 with strategies that suit the numbers, like adding by place value or using the link between adding and subtracting.
M.3.NBT.A.3
Multiply a one-digit number by a multiple of 10 from 10 to 90, like 9 x 80, using place value and number properties.

Number and Operations—Fractions

3 standards
M.3.NF.A.1
Explain a unit fraction like 1/4 as one of the equal parts of a whole, and see other fractions as built from them, like 7/4 as seven fourths.
M.3.NF.A.2
Place fractions on a number line by splitting 0 to 1 into equal lengths and stepping off unit fractions, like 5/3 as five jumps of 1/3.
M.3.NF.A.3
Find equal fractions with models, like 1/2 = 2/4, write whole numbers as fractions, and compare fractions with a shared numerator or denominator.

Measurement and Data

8 standards
M.3.MD.A.1
Tell time to the nearest minute, measure lengths of time in minutes, and solve adding and subtracting time problems, like on a number line.
M.3.MD.A.2
Measure and estimate liquid volume and mass in grams, kilograms and liters, and solve one-step word problems with them, using drawings like a beaker scale.
M.3.MD.B.3
Draw picture and bar graphs where each symbol stands for several items, like 5 pets per square, and answer how many more or less questions.
M.3.MD.B.4
Measure lengths to the nearest half or quarter inch with a ruler and show the data on a line plot marked in wholes, halves and fourths.
M.3.MD.C.5
Explain area as the space a flat shape covers, measured by counting unit squares that fill it with no gaps or overlaps.
M.3.MD.C.6
Find the area of a shape by counting the unit squares that cover it, in square centimeters, meters, inches or feet.
M.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.
M.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.

Geometry

2 standards
M.3.G.A.1
Sort shapes by shared features, like knowing rhombuses, rectangles and squares are all quadrilaterals, and draw four-sided shapes that are none of those.
M.3.G.A.2
Split shapes into parts with equal area and name each part as a unit fraction, like each of 4 equal parts is 1/4 of the shape.

The official Wisconsin documents

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