North Dakota 3rd Grade Curriculum & Standards Guide

North Dakota standards

Math

2023 North Dakota Mathematics Content Standards K-12

State's own standards · adopted 2023

The 2023 standards (Revision 2, June 2024) are North Dakota's own, with codes like 3.AR.OA.1 and four strands: Number and Operations, Algebraic Reasoning, Geometry and Measurement, and Data, Probability, and Statistics. Grade 3 adds numbers to 10,000, money, angle types and symmetry. It asks for automatic facts only up to 5 x 5 and the 10s, and two-step problems use addition and subtraction only (3.AR.OA.3).

Official standards

English Language Arts

2023 North Dakota English Language Arts Content Standards

State's own standards · adopted 2023

The 2023 standards (codes like 3.F.8a) have been measured on the ND A+ test since 2024-25. Grade 3 Foundations ask for an organized paragraph with a topic sentence, supporting sentences and a conclusion (3.F.14); handwriting is listed as mastered in Grade 2. Point of view, verb tense, subject-verb agreement and comparative adjectives are Grade 4 standards (4.R.8a, 4.L.2b to 4.L.2d).

Official standards

Science

2019 North Dakota Science Content Standards K-12

Based on the national science framework · adopted 2019

The 2019 standards use the national Grade 3 codes for forces, life cycles, traits, adaptations, fossils, weather and climate, with a few rewordings (3-PS2-2 asks for metric measurements). The list has 17 standards: there is none on solutions to problems caused by a changing environment, and the engineering standards are coded 3-ET1-1 to 3-ET1-3.

Official standards

Social Studies

2019 North Dakota Social Studies Content Standards K-12

State standards informed by the national social studies framework

The standards (dated August 2019) are written for a Grades 3-5 band with codes like G.3_5.5, and districts decide what is taught in Grade 3. The document's optional chart suggests a city and local community focus for Grade 3 and North Dakota studies for Grade 4. The 2019 standards are the ones posted for 2026-27; a rewrite is under way.

Official standards

Grade 3 differences

1. In North Dakota

   Math: read and write numbers up to 10,000 and compare four-digit numbers (3.NO.CC.1, 3.NO.NBT.1). The national standards stop at 1,000 in Grade 3.

   Suggested swap in Third Grade

   Math Week 1 (place value and rounding): add two days reading, writing and comparing four-digit numbers, and revisit them in Flex Week 5.

2. In North Dakota

   Math: solve word problems with dollar bills, quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies, using the $ and ¢ symbols (3.GM.M.5). The national standards place money in Grade 2.

   Suggested swap in Third Grade

   Math Week 32 (flex week): add two or three days of coin-and-bill word problems written with $ and ¢.

3. In North Dakota

   Math: identify right, acute and obtuse angles and parallel and perpendicular lines in two-dimensional shapes (3.GM.G.1). The national standards teach these in Grade 4.

   Suggested swap in Third Grade

   Math Week 34 (quadrilaterals): add an angle hunt (right, acute, obtuse) and mark parallel and perpendicular sides on each shape.

4. In North Dakota

   Math: identify lines of symmetry in quadrilaterals (3.GM.G.3). The national standards teach line symmetry in Grade 4.

   Suggested swap in Third Grade

   Math Week 33 (polygons): fold paper quadrilaterals to find lines of symmetry.

5. In North Dakota

   ELA: identify personification, hyperbole, simile, alliteration and onomatopoeia in reading (3.R.7a to 3.R.7e) and tell fact from opinion (3.IR.4).

   Suggested swap in Third Grade

   ELA Week 26 (figurative language): add alliteration, onomatopoeia, hyperbole and personification to the hunt for similes. ELA Week 8 (opinion writing): sort statements into fact and opinion.

6. In North Dakota

   ELA: recognize and use the complete subject and complete predicate of a sentence (3.L.2c) and prepositions (3.L.2e).

   Suggested swap in Third Grade

   ELA Week 13 (revise and edit): mark the complete subject and complete predicate in your child's sentences and add prepositional phrases to three of them.

7. In North Dakota

   Social studies (Grades 3-5 band): districts choose the Grade 3 content; the state's optional chart suggests Grade 3 as the city and local community year, with city government, maps of the city and local individuals (band codes are written like C.3_5.1).

   Suggested swap in Third Grade

   Social Studies Weeks 3 and 19 (maps and globes; local government): use a map of your own city and your own city government as the examples.

8. In North Dakota

   Social studies (Grades 3-5 band): North Dakota's three regions and settlement patterns, statehood and the North Dakota Native American Essential Understandings are band standards that the optional chart places in Grade 4 (G.3_5.5, G.3_5.7, H.3_5.10, H.3_5.3).

   Suggested swap in Third Grade

   Social Studies Week 17 (state project): choose North Dakota and include its three regions (Red River Valley, Drift Prairie, Missouri Plateau), statehood (1889) and the tribal nations of North Dakota; a deeper study can wait for Grade 4.

Grade 3 public-school test

ND A+ summative assessment (ELA and math, Grades 3-8 and 10)

ND A+ replaced the North Dakota State Assessment (NDSA). For homeschoolers, the state's home education page lists standardized testing in Grades 4, 6, 8 and 10, not Grade 3.

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. North Dakota homeschool page

Sources

• Mathematics Content Standards · North Dakota Department of Public Instruction
• North Dakota Mathematics Content Standards K-12 (rev. 2024) · North Dakota Department of Public Instruction
• 2023 ELA Content Standards · North Dakota Department of Public Instruction
• 2019 North Dakota Science Content Standards K-12 · North Dakota Department of Public Instruction
• 2019 North Dakota Social Studies Content Standards (Rev. 7) · North Dakota Department of Public Instruction
• Home Education · North Dakota Department of Public Instruction
• ND A+ Assessment · North Dakota Department of Public Instruction
• Crosswalk Between the 2017 and 2023 North Dakota Mathematics Content Standards · North Dakota Department of Public Instruction
• Crosswalk between the 2017 and 2023 ELA Content Standards · North Dakota Department of Public Instruction
• Standards Review (review schedule) · North Dakota Department of Public Instruction

Verified 2026-10-08