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    Indiana 3rd Grade Curriculum & Standards Guide

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

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    Indiana standards

    Math

    Indiana Academic Standards for Mathematics (2023)

    State's own standards · adopted 2023

    Indiana writes its own standards with its own codes, such as 3.CA.7; the 2023 set is a shorter list. Most of Grade 3 lines up with Third Grade, but Indiana adds numbers to 10,000, money, temperature and weight, and points and lines, and does not cap adding and subtracting at 1,000 (3.CA.1). Indiana places line plots (4.DA.1, 4.DA.2) and the area of shapes made of several rectangles (4.M.4) in Grade 4.

    Official standards

    English Language Arts

    Indiana Academic Standards for English/Language Arts (2023)

    State's own standards · adopted 2023

    Indiana's own 2023 standards, with codes such as 3.RC.5; Grade 3 is close to Third Grade. Handwriting is 'write legibly in print or cursive' (3.W.1), so cursive is allowed but not required. Indiana adds fact and opinion, word relationships and media messages, names tall tales instead of myths (3.RC.2), and asks for all four sentence types (3.W.7) and for judging which sources are reliable (3.W.6).

    Official standards

    Science

    Indiana Academic Standards for Science (2023)

    National science standards · adopted 2023

    Indiana's 2023 Grade 3 science standards use the national science standards with the same codes and wording, for example 3-LS4-1 (fossils): 15 Grade 3 standards plus three engineering design standards. The Indiana-only water cycle standard from 2022 (3-ESS2-3) is not in the 2023 list. Third Grade's science matches.

    Official standards

    Social Studies

    2026 Indiana Academic Standards: Grade 3 Social Studies

    State's own standards

    The Department lists social studies as a 2026 revision, and its guidance gives 2026-27 as the first year of use; we could not find the State Board approval date. Grade 3 covers the local community, Indiana's regions and the Midwest. Use Indiana for the Week 17 state project. Social studies codes look like 3.G.2 (the Midwest map); the math standards use the same code for a different standard.

    Official standards

    Standard-by-standard crosswalk

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

    • Math: 9 same · 20 close · 4 partly · 4 not in Grade 3
    • English Language Arts: 33 same · 33 close · 8 partly · 16 not in Grade 3
    • Science: 18 same · 0 close · 0 partly · 0 not in Grade 3
    Open the Indiana crosswalk

    Grade 3 differences

    1. In Indiana

      Math: read and write whole numbers up to 10,000 in words, models, standard form and expanded form (3.NS.1). Indiana's own comparison lists no Grade 3 Common Core match.

      Suggested swap in Third Grade

      Math Week 1 (place value and rounding): add two days on four-digit numbers to 10,000 in standard, word and expanded form.

    2. In Indiana

      Math: find the value of any collection of coins and bills, write amounts with the cent and dollar signs, and decide whether there is enough money for a purchase (3.M.4). Common Core places money in Grade 2.

      Suggested swap in Third Grade

      Math Weeks 2-3 (adding and subtracting within 1,000): count mixed coins and bills, write amounts like $4.59, and turn two word problems a day into 'do we have enough money?' problems.

    3. In Indiana

      Math: identify, describe and draw points, lines and line segments (3.G.2). Common Core places this in Grade 4.

      Suggested swap in Third Grade

      Math Week 33 (polygons): start by drawing and naming points, lines and line segments with a ruler.

    4. In Indiana

      Math: choose units and tools to estimate and measure length, weight in pounds and temperature in degrees Celsius and Fahrenheit (3.M.2), and include quarts and gallons with liquid volume (3.M.1).

      Suggested swap in Third Grade

      Math Week 26 (mass and liquid volume): add weighing in pounds, reading a thermometer in both Fahrenheit and Celsius, and measuring in quarts and gallons.

    5. In Indiana

      Social studies: label a map of the Midwest with its states, major rivers, lakes and the Great Lakes (3.G.2), find Indiana and its neighbors using a simple grid (3.G.3), and name the four hemispheres, use cardinal and intermediate directions, and find the direction and distance from one place to another on maps and globes (3.G.4).

      Suggested swap in Third Grade

      Social Studies Week 3 (maps and globes): add a simple grid map, the four hemispheres, in-between directions such as northeast, and finding the direction and distance between two places; Weeks 10-11 (U.S. geography; five U.S. regions): label a Midwest map with states, major rivers and the Great Lakes.

    6. In Indiana

      Social studies: explain the three levels of government, local, state and federal (3.C.3). Third Grade teaches the three branches instead.

      Suggested swap in Third Grade

      Social Studies Week 20 (three branches): add a day on the three levels of government, and have your child name one thing your town, Indiana and the national government each do.

    7. In Indiana

      Social studies: make simple timelines of events in Indiana's regions (3.H.5), tell fact from fiction in historical accounts (3.H.7), and describe how human activities and natural systems affect the local environment (3.G.8). Third Grade does not teach these.

      Suggested swap in Third Grade

      Social Studies Week 8 (how our community began): make a timeline of events in your part of Indiana and compare a real historical source with a made-up story about the same time; Week 4 (landforms, water and resources): add how people and nature change your local environment.

    8. In Indiana

      ELA: tell fact from opinion (3.RC.9) and tell apart the purposes of media messages: to inform, entertain, persuade, interpret events or pass on culture (3.CC.8). Neither has a Grade 3 Common Core match.

      Suggested swap in Third Grade

      ELA Week 24 (author's purpose and point of view): sort statements into fact and opinion, and decide the purpose of an advertisement, a news clip and a story.

    Grade 3 public-school test

    ILEARN (Grade 3 English/Language Arts and Mathematics) and IREAD

    Grade 3 public-school students take ILEARN in English/language arts and math (checkpoints during the year plus an end-of-year test). IREAD, a reading test, is taken by all Grade 2 students and by students in Grades 3-6 until they pass.

    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. Indiana homeschool page

    Sources

    Verified 2026-10-08