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    Minnesota 3rd Grade Curriculum & Standards Guide

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

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    Minnesota standards

    Math

    Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards in Mathematics (2007)

    State's own standards · adopted 2007

    Minnesota never adopted Common Core math. The 2007 standards apply in 2026-27; the 2022 standards are required from 2027-28. Codes are four numbers, for example 3.1.3.2 (Grade 3, Number & Operation, standard 3, benchmark 2). Several topics sit in a different grade than in Third Grade.

    Official standards

    English Language Arts

    2020 Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards in English Language Arts

    State's own standards · adopted 2023

    The 2020 standards, in rule since July 3, 2023, use Minnesota's own strands and codes, for example 3.1.4.2. There is no separate Language strand: grammar, punctuation and spelling sit in Writing (3.2.1.1 to 3.2.1.3). No Grade 3 benchmark mentions cursive or keyboarding.

    Official standards

    Science

    2019 Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards in Science

    Based on the national science framework · adopted 2021

    The 2019 standards are built on the national K-12 science framework but place topics in different grades, with Minnesota's own codes such as 3E.2.2.1.1. Grade 3 has 11 benchmarks on light, patterns in the sky, life cycles and survival; only life cycles and variation within a species match Third Grade directly.

    Official standards

    Social Studies

    2021 Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards in Social Studies

    State's own standards

    The 2021 standards take effect in 2026-27. Grade 3 is titled 'Third Grade: Ancient World' and has 20 benchmarks, coded like 3.2.8.1: daily life, maps and sources of the ancient world, plus civics, basic economics and Minnesota's 11 Tribal Nations.

    Official standards

    Standard-by-standard crosswalk

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

    • Math: 0 same · 15 close · 9 partly · 13 not in Grade 3
    • English Language Arts: 4 same · 50 close · 18 partly · 18 not in Grade 3
    • Science: 2 same · 1 close · 1 partly · 14 not in Grade 3
    Open the Minnesota crosswalk

    Grade 3 differences

    1. In Minnesota

      Social studies: Grade 3 is 'Ancient World'. Children describe daily life in at least three parts of the ancient world (3.4.19.1), read a map of an ancient region (3.3.13.1) and ask what surviving sources can tell us (3.4.20.1). U.S. regions, explorers, immigration and the branches of government are not Grade 3 benchmarks.

      Suggested swap in Third Grade

      Social Studies Weeks 7, 10 and 11 (explorers and settlers; U.S. geography; five U.S. regions): swap in an ancient world study. Compare daily life in three ancient places, read a map of one of them, and look at what objects and writings survive.

    2. In Minnesota

      Science: Grade 3 physical science is about light: why objects need light to be seen, how light passes through materials and how reflected light lets us see (3P.1.1.1.1, 3P.1.2.1.1, 3P.3.1.1.1). Minnesota places forces in Grade 2 (2P.2.2.1.1) and magnets in Grade 4 (4P.1.1.1.1), which Third Grade teaches this year.

      Suggested swap in Third Grade

      Science Flex Weeks 5 and 14: add light investigations with a flashlight, mirrors and clear, cloudy and solid materials, and draw a model of light reflecting into the eye.

    3. In Minnesota

      Science: Grade 3 Earth science covers patterns of the sun, moon and stars and changes in daylight across the seasons (3E.2.1.1.1, 3E.2.2.1.1), and how Minnesota American Indian Tribes and communities and other cultures use patterns in the stars (3E.4.2.2.1). Minnesota places weather and climate in Grade 2 (2E.2.1.1.1, 2E.4.2.1.2).

      Suggested swap in Third Grade

      Science Weeks 19-20 (weather tools; climate): add a weekly sunrise and sunset log, charted on a computer, and a moon diary. Science Flex Week 23: read about Dakota and Ojibwe star knowledge and do a night-sky observation.

    4. In Minnesota

      Math: Minnesota Grade 3 expects whole numbers up to 100,000 (3.1.1.1 to 3.1.1.5), multiplying a two- or three-digit number by a one-digit number (3.1.2.5), making change up to one dollar (3.3.3.3) and reading a thermometer in Fahrenheit and Celsius (3.3.3.4). Third Grade does not teach these.

      Suggested swap in Third Grade

      Math Week 1 (place value and rounding): extend reading, writing and comparing numbers to 100,000. Math Week 16 (patterns, multiplying by multiples of 10): add two- and three-digit times one-digit problems. Use a flex week (23 or 32) for making change and reading a thermometer.

    5. In Minnesota

      Math: Minnesota teaches several Third Grade topics a year later: area (4.3.2.3, 4.3.2.4), equivalent fractions (4.1.2.1), placing fractions on a number line (4.1.2.2), fluency with multiplication and division facts (4.1.1.1) and classifying quadrilaterals (4.3.1.2). Grade 3 has no benchmark on mass or liquid volume.

      Suggested swap in Third Grade

      Math Weeks 28-29 (area), Week 21 (equivalent fractions), Week 34 (quadrilaterals) and Week 26 (mass and liquid volume): these go beyond Minnesota's Grade 3 list. Keep them as a head start, or shorten them to make room for the Minnesota topics above.

    6. In Minnesota

      Social studies: children locate Minnesota's 11 Tribal Nations (3.1.6.1).

      Suggested swap in Third Grade

      Social Studies Weeks 6 and 12 (Native peoples; Native nations across regions): find Minnesota's 11 Tribal Nations on a state map and learn about the Dakota and Anishinaabe nations near you.

    7. In Minnesota

      Science: Grade 3 life science includes how sunlight and water affect plant growth (3L.1.2.1.2) and the structures that help plants and animals survive, grow, behave and reproduce (3L.4.2.1.1). Minnesota places inherited traits in Grade 4 (4L.4.2.1.2) and habitats and survival in Grade 2 (2L.4.1.1.1).

      Suggested swap in Third Grade

      Science Week 31 (environment and growth): make sunlight versus shade and more versus less water the growing conditions. Science Week 13 (animal groups): for each animal, name the body structures that help it survive.

    8. In Minnesota

      ELA: children choose and read texts representing the perspectives of historical and contemporary Dakota and Anishinaabe people (3.1.3.1), judge whether sources are relevant and credible (3.1.9.2) and ask questions to tell fact from opinion (3.2.7.1).

      Suggested swap in Third Grade

      ELA Week 16 (comparing texts): choose books by or about Dakota and Anishinaabe people. ELA Week 17 (research basics): for each source, ask who made it, whether it fits the question and which statements are facts or opinions.

    Grade 3 public-school test

    Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCA)

    The MCA covers reading, mathematics and science; check the page for which subjects Grade 3 takes.

    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. Minnesota homeschool page

    Sources

    Verified 2026-10-08