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    Utah 3rd Grade Curriculum & Standards Guide

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

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    Utah standards

    Math

    Utah Core State Standards for Mathematics

    Based on Common Core · adopted 2016

    Adopted in 2010 and revised in 2016; these standards apply in 2026-27. Grade 3 keeps the Common Core content, with codes written without the cluster letter (3.OA.7) and small Utah edits: extra lettered parts, order of operations (3.OA.8a), inverse operations (3.OA.6) and milliliters (3.MD.2). A revision is in process, and the state's timeline estimates revised standards in classrooms in 2027-28.

    Official standards

    English Language Arts

    Utah State Standards for P-12 English Language Arts

    State's own standards · adopted 2023

    Adopted in 2023, replacing Utah's 2013 standards, with Utah's own codes (such as 3.R.5) in three strands: speaking and listening, reading, and writing. There is no language strand, so Grade 3 has no separate grammar or punctuation standards, and point of view begins in Grade 4. Opinion writing is called argumentative writing (3.W.1), and Grade 3 requires both cursive and manuscript handwriting.

    Official standards

    Science

    Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards

    Based on the national science framework · adopted 2023

    Utah's own standards, written from the national framework, with codes such as 3.3.3 (social studies uses the same form). The current document is marked adopted June 2023; the state's timeline lists the elementary standards as last revised in 2019. Grade 3 (weather and climate, traits, forces) is close to Third Grade, with engineering built into three design standards, but adds gravity and leaves fossils to Grade 4.

    Official standards

    Social Studies

    Utah Core Standards for Elementary Social Studies

    State's own standards

    Adopted December 2022. Grade 3 has four strands: types of government and the U.S. and Utah Constitutions, your community, rights and responsibilities, and connecting your community to the world. Utah places scarcity, producers and consumers and personal saving in Grade 2 (2.4.1, 2.4.2, 2.4.4), so Third Grade's economics weeks go beyond the Grade 3 list.

    Official standards

    Standard-by-standard crosswalk

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

    • Math: 33 same · 4 close · 0 partly · 0 not in Grade 3
    • English Language Arts: 16 same · 41 close · 9 partly · 24 not in Grade 3
    • Science: 8 same · 8 close · 1 partly · 1 not in Grade 3
    Open the Utah crosswalk

    Grade 3 differences

    1. In Utah

      Social studies: children compare forms of government, including a constitutional republic, a pure democracy, an oligarchy and a monarchy (3.1.1).

      Suggested swap in Third Grade

      Social Studies Week 20 (three branches): add a chart comparing a constitutional republic, a pure democracy, an oligarchy and a monarchy, with one sentence on who holds power in each.

    2. In Utah

      Social studies: children study the U.S. and Utah Constitutions: why 'We the People' matters, the Constitution as supreme law, First Amendment rights, and checks and balances at state and federal levels (3.1.2 to 3.1.5).

      Suggested swap in Third Grade

      Social Studies Weeks 20 and 21 (three branches; citizens' rights and responsibilities): read the Preamble's first three words and the First Amendment, and find Utah's three branches in the Utah Constitution.

    3. In Utah

      Social studies: children choose one community outside the United States and research its location, geography, cultures and government, comparing it with their own (3.4.1 to 3.4.5).

      Suggested swap in Third Grade

      Social Studies Weeks 15-16 (culture; immigration): pick one community in another country and compare its map location, landforms, culture and government with your own.

    4. In Utah

      Social studies: children describe why governments collect taxes and how they decide how to use them (3.3.6).

      Suggested swap in Third Grade

      Social Studies Week 19 (local government): add a lesson on why your city or county collects taxes and what it spends them on, such as roads, parks and libraries.

    5. In Utah

      ELA: children legibly write all upper- and lowercase cursive and manuscript letters (3.W.5). Third Grade does not teach cursive.

      Suggested swap in Third Grade

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

    6. In Utah

      ELA: Utah still lists sound-awareness skills in Grade 3: reversing the sounds in a spoken word and making new words by adding, deleting or swapping one sound (3.R.2a, 3.R.2b).

      Suggested swap in Third Grade

      ELA weekly word study, starting in Week 1: add two minutes of spoken sound play a day, such as saying 'pat' backwards or changing one sound to turn 'cat' into 'cot'.

    7. In Utah

      Science: children explain that Earth's gravity pulls objects down, toward the center of the Earth (3.3.3). The national science standards place gravity in Grade 5.

      Suggested swap in Third Grade

      Science Week 2 (balanced and unbalanced forces): add a drop test showing that gravity pulls objects toward the center of the Earth, wherever you stand on the globe.

    8. In Utah

      Math: liquid volume is measured in milliliters as well as liters (3.MD.2). Common Core names only liters in Grade 3.

      Suggested swap in Third Grade

      Math Week 26 (mass and liquid volume): measure with a milliliter cup or syringe as well as a liter container.

    Grade 3 public-school test

    RISE (Readiness Improvement Success Empowerment)

    Grade 3 public-school students take RISE English language arts and mathematics. RISE science starts in Grade 4 and writing in Grade 5.

    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. Utah homeschool page

    Sources

    Verified 2026-10-08