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    Kansas 3rd Grade Curriculum & Standards Guide

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

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    Kansas standards

    Math

    2017 Kansas Mathematics Standards

    Based on Common Core · adopted 2017

    Adopted August 2017 and reviewed in 2024 with the same Grade 3 codes. Grade 3 keeps the Common Core content but drops the cluster letters and renumbers measurement, so perimeter is 3.MD.9. Small wording changes include a.m. and p.m. for telling time (3.MD.1) and fluent multiplication and division facts using strategies, without the line about knowing every product from memory (3.OA.7); Third Grade matches it closely.

    Official standards

    English Language Arts

    Kansas Standards for English Language Arts (2023)

    Based on Common Core · adopted 2023

    The 2023 standards (updated February 2025) keep reading codes such as RF.3.3.a but have no Language strand: grammar and spelling are W.3.10 and W.3.11, vocabulary is RL.3.11-12 and RI.3.11-12, and grammar when speaking is SL.3.7. Kansas also has separate Handwriting Curricular Standards (January 2020), which start cursive in Grade 3.

    Official standards

    Science

    Kansas Science Standards (Kansas College and Career Ready Standards for Science)

    National science standards · adopted 2013

    Kansas adopted the national science standards in 2013 and reviewed them in 2025; the codes and wording are unchanged, for example 3-PS2-1. Grade 3 topics are the same as in Third Grade: forces and magnets, life cycles and traits, fossils, weather and climate.

    Official standards

    Social Studies

    Kansas History, Government, and Social Studies Standards

    State standards informed by the national social studies framework

    Five broad standards apply to every grade, and each grade has a focus standard. Grade 3, 'Local and National Communities', focuses on Standard 3, how societies are shaped by the identities, beliefs and practices of individuals and groups (benchmarks 3.1 to 3.4). Its units and topics are a planning guide, not mandated; the posted document is dated May 27, 2026 and states no adoption year.

    Official standards

    Standard-by-standard crosswalk

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

    • Math: 33 same · 4 close · 0 partly · 0 not in Grade 3
    • English Language Arts: 80 same · 10 close · 0 partly · 0 not in Grade 3
    • Science: 18 same · 0 close · 0 partly · 0 not in Grade 3
    Open the Kansas crosswalk

    Grade 3 differences

    1. In Kansas

      ELA: Kansas's separate handwriting standards keep print legible (standard 1), begin cursive in Grade 3 with cursive lines, letters, joinings, words and sentences (standard 2), and build cursive that flows easily enough to become automatic (standard 3) (Kansas Handwriting Curricular Standards, Grade 3, standards 1 to 3). Common Core has no handwriting standard after Grade 1.

      Suggested swap in Third Grade

      All year: add 10 minutes of cursive practice two or three days a week, starting in ELA Week 1, and keep checking that everyday print writing stays neat.

    2. In Kansas

      ELA: Kansas adds a first step to opinion writing, 'Know the difference between fact and opinion' (W.3.1.a), so the other opinion-writing parts move down one letter (W.3.1.b to W.3.1.e).

      Suggested swap in Third Grade

      ELA Week 8 (opinion writing): start by sorting statements into fact and opinion before your child writes an opinion; repeat in Weeks 19-21 (opinion essay).

    3. In Kansas

      Social studies: the Grade 3 planning guide (suggested, not mandated) lists local, state and tribal government, constitutions and sovereignty. Third Grade teaches local government and the three federal branches; the guide names local government but not the three branches (focus Standard 3, benchmarks 3.1 and 3.2).

      Suggested swap in Third Grade

      Social Studies Week 19 (local government): add a day each on Kansas state government and on the government of a tribal nation in Kansas, and explain that tribal nations govern themselves.

    4. In Kansas

      Social studies: the Grade 3 planning guide suggests borrowing and lending, credit, and taxes as the way communities pay for roads and other shared needs, alongside spending and saving (focus Standard 3, suggested topics).

      Suggested swap in Third Grade

      Social Studies Week 30 (earning, banks and budgets): add a lesson on borrowing and credit; Week 31 (save, spend, give): add how sales and property taxes pay for roads, schools and parks.

    5. In Kansas

      Social studies: the Grade 3 planning guide centers on the child's own hometown or tribal nation, including Indigenous peoples and voluntary and involuntary migrations relevant to Kansas. Kansas places the regions of the United States in Grade 4 (focus Standard 3, suggested topics).

      Suggested swap in Third Grade

      Social Studies Week 8 (how our community began): research your own Kansas town; Week 16 (immigration): add who moved to Kansas and who was forced to move; Week 17 state project: choose Kansas. Weeks 10-11 (U.S. geography; five U.S. regions) are a head start on Kansas Grade 4.

    6. In Kansas

      Social studies: other suggested Grade 3 topics are opportunity cost, economic specialization, stewardship of resources, inventors and entrepreneurs, social movements, and rural, suburban and urban population density (focus Standard 3, suggested topics).

      Suggested swap in Third Grade

      Social Studies Week 2 (community types): compare how crowded rural, suburban and urban places are; Week 4 (landforms, water and resources): add caring for resources; Week 26 (scarcity and markets): add opportunity cost and specialization, and read about one inventor or business owner; Weeks 33-34 (civic action): add one social movement.

    7. In Kansas

      Math: Kansas names trapezoids and kites among the Grade 3 shapes and uses the inclusive definitions in its glossary (3.G.1), tells time using a.m. and p.m. (3.MD.1), and adds the not-equal sign when comparing fractions (3.NF.3d).

      Suggested swap in Third Grade

      Math Week 34 (quadrilaterals): include trapezoids and kites, and count a square as a kind of rectangle and rhombus; Week 25 (time): write a.m. and p.m.; Week 22 (comparing fractions): use the not-equal sign as well as <, > and =.

    Grade 3 public-school test

    Kansas Assessment Program (KAP) summative assessments

    Grade 3 public-school students take English language arts and mathematics (tested in grades 3-8 and 10). 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. Kansas homeschool page

    Sources

    Verified 2026-10-08