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    Iowa 3rd Grade Curriculum & Standards Guide

    How Iowa's third grade standards line up with Third Grade.

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    Iowa standards

    Math

    Iowa Academic Standards for Mathematics

    Based on Common Core · adopted 2024

    Adopted April 29, 2024 and in use from 2024-25. Grade 3 keeps the Common Core codes, such as 3.NBT.A.1, and has no Iowa-only standards. A few are reworded: children find one-digit products and quotients 'flexibly, efficiently, and accurately' where the national wording asks for products from memory (3.OA.C.7), and rounding is limited to numbers from 0 to 1,000 (3.NBT.A.1).

    Official standards

    English Language Arts

    Iowa Academic Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects

    Based on Common Core · adopted 2024

    Adopted June 20, 2024 and in use from 2024-25. Reading, writing and language keep Common Core codes, though two fluency parts trade places (RF.3.4, parts b and c) and Grade 3 phonics adds spelling as well as reading words (RF.3.3). Iowa adds a Writing Foundations strand, which makes cursive a Grade 3 requirement (WF.3.1).

    Official standards

    Science

    Iowa Academic Standards for Science

    National science standards · adopted 2025

    Adopted May 8, 2025 and in use from 2025-26. Iowa's 18 Grade 3 standards say the same as the national science standards, with Iowa's own clarifications and Iowa examples added, so Grade 3 matches Third Grade. The codes are the same too, for example 3-PS2-1, except that the three engineering design standards are written 3-ETS1-1 to 3-ETS1-3.

    Official standards

    Social Studies

    Iowa Academic Standards for Social Studies

    State's own standards

    New standards adopted January 15, 2026, for use from 2026-27. Grade 3 is 'America's Early Story': Native Americans, early colonial America, the Thirteen Colonies, a budgeting unit and five inquiry standards (SS.3.1 to SS.3.5), with codes that run straight through the grade, for example SS.3.12. Iowa studies its own state and local officials in Grade 2 (SS.2.14).

    Official standards

    Standard-by-standard crosswalk

    See every national third grade standard matched to Iowa's own codes.

    • Math: 31 same · 6 close · 0 partly · 0 not in Grade 3
    • English Language Arts: 75 same · 15 close · 0 partly · 0 not in Grade 3
    • Science: 18 same · 0 close · 0 partly · 0 not in Grade 3
    Open the Iowa crosswalk

    Grade 3 differences

    1. In Iowa

      ELA: form all upper and lowercase cursive letters and write in cursive with accuracy and automaticity (WF.3.1). Common Core has no cursive standard and Third Grade does not teach it.

      Suggested swap in Third Grade

      Add 10 to 15 minutes of cursive practice three or four days a week, starting in ELA Week 1, so all letters are learned by mid-year.

    2. In Iowa

      Social studies: compare Native American cultures before European contact, including the different ways Native American groups governed themselves, how place shaped them and how they used natural resources (SS.3.6 to SS.3.9). Third Grade covers Native nations by region but not their governments.

      Suggested swap in Third Grade

      Social Studies Weeks 6 and 12 (Native peoples; Native nations across regions): compare two or three nations in depth, adding how each governed itself and used the resources of its region.

    3. In Iowa

      Social studies: early colonial America, including how geography influences communities and settlements, contact between Native Americans and Europeans, the Mayflower Compact and self-government, and the routes of early explorers (SS.3.10 to SS.3.13).

      Suggested swap in Third Grade

      Social Studies Week 7 (explorers and settlers): trace explorers' routes on a map, talk about why settlers chose the places they did, and add a day on the Mayflower Compact as an example of people agreeing to govern themselves.

    4. In Iowa

      Social studies: the Thirteen Colonies: why they were founded, how their regions differed, how colonists used natural, human and capital resources, and the impact of slavery on early American history (SS.3.14 to SS.3.17).

      Suggested swap in Third Grade

      Social Studies Weeks 8 and 13 (how our community began; movement and trade): study the New England, Middle and Southern colonies, why each was founded, what each produced, and the role of slavery.

    5. In Iowa

      Social studies: financial literacy. Children set financial goals and link careers to income (SS.3.18), explain why and how people save and invest (SS.3.19), and describe what credit is and how it is used (SS.3.20).

      Suggested swap in Third Grade

      Social Studies Weeks 30 and 31 (earning, banks and budgets; save, spend, give): add a savings goal linked to a career your child likes, a simple look at investing, and a lesson on what credit is.

    6. In Iowa

      ELA: children compare and contrast their own point of view with the narrator's or characters' (RL.3.6) and with the author's (RI.3.6). The national wording asks only that they tell the two apart.

      Suggested swap in Third Grade

      ELA Week 24 (author's purpose and point of view): after each reading, have your child say one way their own view is like the author's or a character's and one way it differs.

    Grade 3 public-school test

    Iowa Statewide Assessment of Student Progress (ISASP)

    Public-school students take ISASP math and English language arts, including reading and writing, in Grades 3-11. Science is tested in Grades 5, 8 and 11, so not in Grade 3.

    About this test

    Shown for context. Homeschool testing rules are separate; see below.

    Homeschool rules

    Check your state's current homeschool rules with its education department. Iowa homeschool page

    Sources

    Verified 2026-10-08