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    Idaho 3rd Grade Curriculum & Standards Guide

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

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    Idaho standards

    Math

    Idaho Content Standards: Mathematics (2022)

    Based on Common Core · adopted 2022

    Dated January 3, 2022. Grade 3 keeps the Common Core codes, such as 3.MD.A.2, and nearly all the content, with some Idaho rewording: customary units of weight and capacity are added, trapezoids are named, and telling time to the minute is 'within the same hour' (see below). A math review is scheduled for the 2026-27 cycle.

    Official standards

    English Language Arts

    Idaho Content Standards: English Language Arts/Literacy (2022)

    State's own standards · adopted 2022

    Dated January 3, 2022. Idaho replaced its 2017 standards with seven strands of its own, with fewer standards and foundational reading aligned to the state literacy plan. Grade 3 requires cursive and keyboarding; the document prints each code in pieces, and written out in full a code looks like 3.RC.L.5a.

    Official standards

    Science

    Idaho Content Standards: Science (2022)

    Based on the national science framework · adopted 2022

    Dated January 3, 2022 and based on the national framework, with Idaho's own codes, for example 3-LS-3.3. Grade 3 has 12 standards on forces and magnets, life cycles, traits and survival, and weather and climate, as Third Grade does, and no separate engineering design standards. Three national Grade 3 life science standards, including fossils, are Grade 5 in Idaho.

    Official standards

    Social Studies

    Idaho Content Standards: K-12 Social Studies

    State's own standards

    The current document is dated April 2024, revised November 2025. A state rules record says the standards adopted June 12, 2024 are in force, except Grade 4 and Grades 6-12 U.S. History I. Grade 3 covers your own community: its history, maps, economics, local government and links to the world, with codes such as 3.SS.2.1.

    Official standards

    Standard-by-standard crosswalk

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

    • Math: 33 same · 4 close · 0 partly · 0 not in Grade 3
    • English Language Arts: 32 same · 38 close · 6 partly · 14 not in Grade 3
    • Science: 11 same · 1 close · 0 partly · 6 not in Grade 3
    Open the Idaho crosswalk

    Grade 3 differences

    1. In Idaho

      ELA: children write legibly in cursive (3.W.HWK.7) and use keyboarding skills to produce and publish writing (3.W.HWK.8). Third Grade does not teach cursive.

      Suggested swap in Third Grade

      All year: add 10 minutes of cursive practice two or three days a week, starting in ELA Week 1. ELA Week 31 (publishing): have your child type the final copy.

    2. In Idaho

      ELA: children decode words with common Greek and Latin roots such as trans, port and bio (3.FR.PH.3b), form and use progressive and perfect verb tenses (3.GC.GU.1a) and, with support, judge whether a digital source is factual (3.ODC.DC.5).

      Suggested swap in Third Grade

      Weekly word study: add common Greek and Latin roots. ELA Week 13 (revise and edit): practice sentences such as 'I am walking' and 'I have walked'. ELA Week 17 (research basics): check together whether a website backs up what it says with evidence.

    3. In Idaho

      Science: Idaho places three national Grade 3 life science standards in Grade 5: fossils as evidence of living things and environments of long ago (5-LS-2.1), how variation helps individuals survive and reproduce (5-LS-2.2) and judging a solution to a problem caused by a changing environment (5-LS-2.3).

      Suggested swap in Third Grade

      Science Week 30 (variation) and Week 33 (fossils): teach them as written. They go beyond Idaho's Grade 3 list, so plan to revisit fossils, survival and environmental change in Grade 5, when Idaho expects them.

    4. In Idaho

      Math: children choose tools and units, both customary and metric, to solve one-step word problems about weight, mass, liquid volume and capacity (3.MD.A.2). Common Core names only grams, kilograms and liters in Grade 3. Idaho also names trapezoids among the quadrilaterals children classify (3.G.A.1).

      Suggested swap in Third Grade

      Math Week 26 (mass and liquid volume): also weigh in ounces and pounds and measure in cups, quarts and gallons, and solve a few one-step word problems in those units. Math Week 34 (quadrilaterals): add trapezoids.

    5. In Idaho

      Social studies: children read maps and globes using the terms North Pole, South Pole, Equator, Prime Meridian, hemisphere, latitude, longitude, time zones, country and region (3.SS.2.1), and use cardinal directions, scales, legends and grids to locate the United States, Washington D.C., Idaho, Boise and their own community (3.SS.2.2).

      Suggested swap in Third Grade

      Social Studies Week 3 (maps and globes): add the Equator, Prime Meridian, hemispheres, latitude, longitude and time zones, then use a compass rose, grid and scale to find the United States, Washington D.C., Idaho, Boise and your town.

    6. In Idaho

      Social studies: children study the foods, clothing and traditions of cultural groups in their community, including the five federally recognized tribes of Idaho (3.SS.1.2), and interview people about why they call Idaho home (3.SS.1.3).

      Suggested swap in Third Grade

      Social Studies Weeks 6 and 12 (Native peoples; Native nations across regions): learn about Idaho's five federally recognized tribes. Week 16 (immigration): interview a relative or neighbor about why they call Idaho home.

    7. In Idaho

      Social studies: children explain the difference between public and private property (3.SS.3.2) and give examples of economic choices that include investing as well as banking and budgeting (3.SS.3.4).

      Suggested swap in Third Grade

      Social Studies Week 24 (economics basics): sort places in your town into public and private property. Week 31 (save, spend, give): add a simple lesson on what investing means.

    8. In Idaho

      Social studies: children explain that people in the United States share a national identity through patriotic symbols and holidays (3.SS.4.8).

      Suggested swap in Third Grade

      Social Studies Week 21 (citizens' rights and responsibilities): add a day on national symbols and holidays, such as the flag, the bald eagle and Independence Day.

    Grade 3 public-school test

    Idaho Standards Achievement Test (ISAT)

    Grade 3 public-school students take ISAT English language arts and mathematics. Science is tested in grades 5, 8 and 11.

    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. Idaho homeschool page

    Sources

    Verified 2026-10-08