Free Third Grade Math Activities and Projects

What Will My Third Grader Be Learning in Math?

In third grade, your child will be developing an understanding of multiplication and division within 100. Unit fractions, those with one as the numerator, are also introduced at this level. In geometry, third graders learn how rectangular arrays are created and how they are used to determine the area of geometric figures.

Analyzing and describing 2-dimensional shapes is another focus area for third grade. It is also important for children at this stage to become fluent in addition and subtraction facts within 1,000.

Sample Activity and Project

Mental Cards

For this activity, your child will be using his or her mental math skills to play a card game. Begin by laying out five cards in a row, face down. Then, lay out two more rows of five cards on top of the first row. All number cards will stand for themselves and face cards will represent ten.

The object of the game is to get as close to 15 as possible without going over. For each turn, the player will turn over one card at a time and add the cards together. The player may end his or her turn at any point - remember the goal is to get as close to 15 as possible.

If the player pushes his or her luck and goes over the target number, the cards that were added together are placed in a 'loose' stack. If the player ends his or her turn, and the sum is under 15, then he or she can keep those cards. At the end of the game, the players should add all of their cards together. Whoever has the largest total sum wins.

Can You Graph This?

To complete this long-term project, your child will need to record the amount of television he or she watches each day. If your child is not a big television watcher, feel free to substitute time spent on the computer or playing video games. After gathering this data for a week, have your child use the information to create a graph of his or her choosing (a line graph or bar graph will be the most likely choices). Be sure your child correctly titles the graph and labels each axis appropriately.