A comprehensive, academically rigorous, and engaging curriculum designed to guide your child through the pivotal "third-grade shift" from concrete to abstract thinking
This curriculum continues the successful eclectic educational philosophy established in our first and second-grade curricula. This approach empowers you as a parent-educator to act as a curator of the best possible resources for your child, rather than being locked into a single "boxed" curriculum that may have strengths in one area but weaknesses in another.
Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA) & Science (CKSci) - Free, sequential curricula that build a coherent knowledge base—from Ancient Rome to the Viking Age, from animal classification to weather and climate
All About Reading Level 3 - Continues to build decoding fluency with advanced phonics and multi-syllable words, ensuring the mechanics of reading become automatic
Math with Confidence Grade 3 supplemented by Zearn Math - Provides a hands-on, game-based approach to build deep conceptual understanding of multiplication, division, and fractions
Enriched with selections from Build Your Library Level 3 and classic children's literature to complement historical themes and build cultural literacy
Weeks 1-9 • September - November
Classification, forces, and multiplication form the foundation for higher learning. Students explore animal classification, forces and motion, and develop strong multiplication skills.
Weeks 10-18 • November - January
Exploring human, Roman, and biological systems. Students learn about the human body, ancient Roman civilization, and life cycles while mastering division and fraction concepts.
Weeks 19-27 • January - March
Journey through explorations of Vikings, astronomy, and Earth's patterns. Students investigate weather, climate, and space while applying math to real-world situations.
Weeks 28-36 • March - June
Develop diverse perspectives through studies of Native American cultures, habitats, and environmental change. Students learn persuasive writing and apply math skills to conservation projects.
Third grade marks a significant cognitive transition, often called the "third-grade shift," where learning becomes more abstract, complex, and independent. While first and second grades established foundational skills, third grade is when your child confidently navigates new intellectual territory.
This is evident across all subjects: in mathematics, the focus moves from understanding addition and subtraction to achieving fluency with those operations within 1,000 and mastering the new world of multiplicative reasoning. In language arts, the journey progresses from "learning to read" to "reading to learn" as students engage with increasingly complex texts.
Our curriculum is meticulously designed to scaffold this pivotal transition, recognizing that third graders are capable of deeper critical thinking and greater autonomy, while providing the structure to cultivate these skills.
Moving from adding/subtracting within 100 to mastering multiplication/division within 100 and adding/subtracting within 1000
Transitioning from decoding text to extracting information, identifying main ideas, and using textual evidence
Evolving from basic sentences to crafting paragraphs with topic sentences, supporting details, and conclusions
Moving from describing phenomena to explaining cause and effect relationships in science and history
Full year lesson plans with all resources
Weekly planners, IHIP templates, and tracking sheets
All 60+ read-alouds organized by quarter
Complete materials list for the year
Start with Quarter 1 to build a strong foundation for your child's third-grade year. Our step-by-step approach makes homeschooling manageable and joyful.