Tennessee 3rd Grade Curriculum & Standards Guide

Tennessee standards

Math

Tennessee Mathematics Standards

Based on Common Core · adopted 2021

Adopted February 2021 and used in classrooms since 2023-24. Grade 3 keeps Common Core style codes and adds reading and writing numbers to 100,000 (3.NBT.A.4) and money problems (3.MD.A.1b). Smaller additions are deciding whether a figure is a polygon (3.G.A.3) and milliliters in liquid volume (3.MD.A.2).

Official standards

English Language Arts

Tennessee English Language Arts Standards

Based on Common Core · adopted 2016

Approved in 2016, used since 2017-18 and last approved by the State Board in February 2019. Tennessee uses its own codes (such as 3.RL.KID.1) and has no separate language strand in Grades K-5: grammar, spelling, vocabulary and cursive sit in Foundational Literacy. Revised standards approved in 2026 are not required until 2029-30; they keep Grade 3 cursive.

Official standards

Science

Tennessee Academic Standards for Science

Based on the national science framework · adopted 2022

Adopted October 2022 and used in classrooms since 2025-26; codes look like 3.PS1.1. Based on the national framework but with Tennessee's own grade placements: Grade 3 covers matter, energy and circuits, magnets, life cycles, the solar system, the water cycle, weather and climate. Balanced forces and inherited traits are Grade 5 topics in Tennessee, and fossils are Grade 4.

Official standards

Social Studies

Tennessee Social Studies Standards

State's own standards

The standards adopted in July 2017 (codes such as 3.09) stay in use through 2026-27. Grade 3 is geography and economics (world, U.S. and Tennessee) followed by early American and Tennessee history; it has no standards on local government, the three branches, voting, banks, budgets or saving. Revised standards adopted in February 2024 start in 2027-28.

Official standards

Grade 3 differences

1. In Tennessee

   Math: read and write whole numbers up to 100,000 in standard, word and expanded form (3.NBT.A.4), and solve money problems with coins under one dollar and whole dollars up to $1,000 (3.MD.A.1b). Common Core keeps Grade 3 within 1,000 and places money in Grade 2.

   Suggested swap in Third Grade

   Math Week 1 (place value and rounding): add two days on numbers to 100,000 in standard, word and expanded form. Math Weeks 2-3 (add and subtract within 1,000): turn two word problems a day into money problems.

2. In Tennessee

   Science: Grade 3 physical science is states of matter, heating and cooling, and properties of materials (3.PS1.1-3.PS1.3), plus energy, sound, light, heat and electric circuits (3.PS3.1, 3.PS3.2). The national science standards place matter in Grades 2 and 5 and energy in Grade 4.

   Suggested swap in Third Grade

   Science Week 5 or 14 (flex week): investigate solids, liquids and gases and what heating and cooling change, then build a simple battery-and-bulb circuit.

3. In Tennessee

   Science: the solar system (3.ESS1.1), how Earth's land, water, air and living things interact (3.ESS2.1), the water cycle (3.ESS2.2) and the body structures that help water and land organisms survive (3.LS1.2) are Grade 3 topics in Tennessee.

   Suggested swap in Third Grade

   Science Week 23 or 32 (flex week): sort the planets, moons, asteroids and comets of the solar system and draw a water cycle model. Science Week 26 (climate adaptations): compare the body structures of one water animal and one land animal.

4. In Tennessee

   ELA: write legibly in manuscript and write all lowercase and uppercase cursive letters (3.FL.WC.4d).

   Suggested swap in Third Grade

   All year: add 10 minutes of cursive practice two or three days a week, starting in ELA Week 1.

5. In Tennessee

   ELA: write a cohesive paragraph with a main idea (3.FL.SC.6n), include evidence from texts in writing (3.W.RBPK.9) and type a complete piece in a single sitting (3.W.PDW.6).

   Suggested swap in Third Grade

   ELA Week 7 (main idea): write one paragraph a day with a main idea sentence and supporting details. ELA Week 3 (questions and evidence): quote or point to the text in every written answer. ELA Week 31 (publishing): type one finished piece in a single sitting.

6. In Tennessee

   Social studies: locate the continents and oceans, ten named countries and major world physical features, the fifty states, and Tennessee's main cities, rivers and the Great Smoky Mountains, and explain how bridges, canals and dams meet geographic challenges (3.06, 3.07, 3.08, 3.09, 3.12, 3.13).

   Suggested swap in Third Grade

   Social Studies Week 3 (maps and globes): locate the continents, oceans, the ten named countries and features such as the Nile, the Andes and the Sahara; Week 4 (landforms, water and resources): add bridges, canals and dams; Week 10 (U.S. geography): practice locating all fifty states; Week 17 state project: choose Tennessee and map its cities, rivers and mountains.

7. In Tennessee

   Social studies: Jamestown, Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay, how the Thirteen Colonies developed, long hunters such as Daniel Boone, and life on the Tennessee frontier (3.24-3.31).

   Suggested swap in Third Grade

   Social Studies Weeks 7-8 (explorers and settlers; how our community began): add Jamestown, Plymouth, the Thirteen Colonies and the settling of the Tennessee frontier.

8. In Tennessee

   Science: Tennessee teaches balanced and unbalanced forces and motion patterns in Grade 5 (5.PS2.1, 5.PS2.2), inherited traits and variation in Grade 5 (5.LS3.1, 5.LS3.2, 5.LS4.1) and fossils in Grade 4 (4.LS4.1), not in Grade 3.

   Suggested swap in Third Grade

   Science Weeks 1-3 and 6 (forces and motion), Weeks 28-31 (traits) and Week 33 (fossils) go beyond Tennessee's Grade 3 list: keep them as enrichment, or shorten them to make room for the matter, energy and solar system lessons above.

Grade 3 public-school test

Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP)

Grade 3 public-school students take TCAP English language arts, mathematics and science. Social studies is tested in grades 6-8.

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. Tennessee homeschool page

Sources

• Home School · Tennessee Department of Education
• Tennessee Mathematics Standards (revised October 2021) · Tennessee State Board of Education
• Standards Alignment of 2017 and 2023 Tennessee Mathematics Standards (crosswalk) · Tennessee State Board of Education
• Tennessee English Language Arts Standards (current) · Tennessee State Board of Education
• Standards Review: English Language Arts · Tennessee State Board of Education
• May 19, 2026 State Board of Education meeting minutes (final reading of the 2029-30 English Language Arts standards) · Tennessee State Board of Education
• Tennessee Academic Standards for Science (October 2022) · Tennessee State Board of Education
• Social Studies Standards · Tennessee Department of Education
• Tennessee Social Studies Standards (adopted July 2017) · Tennessee Department of Education
• Overview of Testing in Tennessee · Tennessee Department of Education

Verified 2026-10-08