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    Massachusetts 3rd Grade Curriculum & Standards Guide

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

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    Massachusetts standards

    Math

    2017 Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for Mathematics

    Based on Common Core · adopted 2017

    The 2017 Massachusetts Mathematics Framework, a revision of Common Core that keeps the national codes, such as 3.OA.C.7. Grade 3 has three small changes: division facts are also known from memory (3.OA.C.7), shapes are sorted by sides and right angles and trapezoids are named (3.G.A.1), and the properties are applied to multiplication only (3.OA.B.5).

    Official standards

    English Language Arts

    2017 Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for English Language Arts and Literacy

    Based on Common Core · adopted 2017

    The 2017 Massachusetts ELA and Literacy Framework, a revision of Common Core, with codes such as W.3.3.f. Grade 3 adds handwriting in print or cursive (L.3.2.a), sound patterns and figurative language in stories and poems (W.3.3.c, W.3.3.f) and everyday abbreviations and symbols (L.3.4.e, L.3.4.f). It drops the national part on explaining what each part of speech does.

    Official standards

    Science

    2016 Massachusetts Science and Technology/Engineering Curriculum Framework

    Based on the national science framework · adopted 2016

    The 2016 framework is built on the national framework, with codes such as 3-LS4-1. Grade 3 adds two Massachusetts-written standards, 3-LS4-5(MA) and 3.3-5-ETS1-4(MA), and leaves out the national standards on patterns of motion and animal groups. Its 3-PS2-3 covers magnets only, not electric forces, and testing a model or prototype is in Grade 4 (4.3-5-ETS1-3).

    Official standards

    Social Studies

    2018 Massachusetts History and Social Science Curriculum Framework

    State's own standards

    Adopted in 2018, with a supplement updated in December 2021. Grade 3 is 'Massachusetts, Home to Many Different People'. The framework numbers standards under six topics, written here like 3.T2.3 (topic 2, standard 3).

    Official standards

    Standard-by-standard crosswalk

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

    • Math: 34 same · 3 close · 0 partly · 0 not in Grade 3
    • English Language Arts: 71 same · 18 close · 0 partly · 1 not in Grade 3
    • Science: 8 same · 6 close · 1 partly · 3 not in Grade 3
    Open the Massachusetts crosswalk

    Grade 3 differences

    1. In Massachusetts

      Social studies: Grade 3 studies Massachusetts and New England, beginning with the child's own city or town (topics 3.T1 and 3.T2).

      Suggested swap in Third Grade

      Social Studies Week 8 (how our community began) and Week 17 (state project): research your Massachusetts city or town and then the state.

    2. In Massachusetts

      Social studies: Grade 3 explores interactions among Native Peoples, European settlers and Africans in Massachusetts history, including Pilgrim, Puritan and Native leaders such as Massasoit and Metacom (3.T5.1), daily life in the Massachusetts Bay Colony (3.T5.3) and the fact that slavery was legal in all the colonies, Massachusetts included (3.T5.4).

      Suggested swap in Third Grade

      Social Studies Weeks 6-7 (Native peoples; explorers and settlers): focus on the Wampanoag and other Native Peoples of Massachusetts, the Pilgrim and Puritan settlements, and the lives of servants and enslaved people in the colony.

    3. In Massachusetts

      Social studies: Grade 3 connects Massachusetts events, places and people of the early 1770s, such as the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party and Lexington and Concord, to the start of the American Revolution (3.T6.2) and explains what the Declaration of Independence says (3.T6.3).

      Suggested swap in Third Grade

      Social Studies Flex Week 14: make a timeline of the Boston Massacre, the Tea Party, and Lexington and Concord, read short biographies of Revolution-era leaders from Massachusetts, and read a children's version of the Declaration of Independence and talk about what it says.

    4. In Massachusetts

      Social studies: Grade 3 introduces the founding documents of Massachusetts and the United States, linked to rights, responsibilities and taking part in government (3.T6.4, 3.T6.5).

      Suggested swap in Third Grade

      Social Studies Weeks 20-21 (three branches; citizens' rights and responsibilities): add a short reading from the Massachusetts Constitution.

    5. In Massachusetts

      ELA: Grade 3 asks children to write legibly and fluently by hand, in either print or cursive (L.3.2.a). Third Grade has no handwriting lessons.

      Suggested swap in Third Grade

      ELA weekly word study (Weeks 1-36): have your child copy each week's spelling words neatly by hand, in print or cursive, and hand-write one final draft in Week 31 (publishing).

    6. In Massachusetts

      Science: Grade 3 has two Massachusetts-only standards: give evidence that a population survives only if its members reproduce (3-LS4-5(MA)), and gather information on possible design solutions and show a solution with sketches or models (3.3-5-ETS1-4(MA)).

      Suggested swap in Third Grade

      Science Week 15 (life cycles): add a day on why a population needs reproduction to survive. Science Week 7 (magnet design problem): look up existing solutions in books or videos first, then sketch or model your child's own design.

    7. In Massachusetts

      Math: Grade 3 asks children to know the related division facts from memory, not only the multiplication facts (3.OA.C.7), and to sort shapes by sides and by right or non-right angles, with trapezoids named among the quadrilaterals (3.G.A.1).

      Suggested swap in Third Grade

      Math Week 11 (division facts): practice division facts to quick recall alongside the multiplication facts. Math Week 34 (quadrilaterals): add trapezoids and sort shapes by right angles.

    8. In Massachusetts

      ELA: Grade 3 asks children writing poems to use words that make patterns of sound, such as rhyme and repeated sounds (W.3.3.f).

      Suggested swap in Third Grade

      ELA Week 15 (poetry): have your child write a short poem that uses rhyme or repeated sounds on purpose.

    Grade 3 public-school test

    MCAS (Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System), Grade 3 ELA and mathematics

    Students in Grades 3-8 take MCAS ELA and math; science testing starts later.

    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. Massachusetts homeschool page

    Sources

    Verified 2026-10-08