Grade 3 Critical Areas

Information taken from the Ohio Department of Education.

CRITICAL AREA #1: Developing understanding of multiplication and division and strategies for multiplication and division within 100
Students develop an understanding of the meanings of multiplication and division of whole numbers through activities and problems involving equal-sized groups, arrays, and area models; multiplication is finding an unknown product, and division is finding an unknown factor in these situations. For equal-sized group situations, division can require finding the unknown number of groups or the unknown group size. Students use properties of operations to calculate products of whole numbers, using increasingly sophisticated strategies based on these properties to solve multiplication and division problems involving single-digit factors. By comparing a variety of solution strategies, students learn the relationship between multiplication and division.

The standards below relate to this Critical Area:

Operations and Algebraic Thinking 3.OA
Represent and solve problems involving multiplication and division.

3.OA.1 3.OA.2 3.OA.3 3.OA.4
Operations and Algebraic Thinking 3.OA Understand properties of multiplication and the relationship between multiplication and division.	3.OA.5 3.OA.6
Operations and Algebraic Thinking 3.OA Multiply and divide within 100. 3.OA.7 Operations and Algebraic Thinking 3.OA Solve problems involving the four operations, and identify and explain patterns in arithmetic.	3.OA.8 3.OA.9
Number and Operations in Base Ten 3.NBT Use place value understanding and properties of operations to perform multi-digit arithmetic.	3.NBT.3
Measurement and Data 3.MD Geometric measurement: understand concepts of area and relate area to multiplication and to addition.	3.MD.7a, b, c, d

CRITICAL AREA #2: Developing understanding of fraction equivalence, addition and subtraction of fractions with like denominators, and multiplication of fractions by whole numbers
Students develop understanding of fraction equivalence and operations with fractions. They recognize that two different fractions can be equal (e.g., 15/9 = 5/3), and they develop methods for generating and recognizing equivalent fractions. Students extend previous understandings about how fractions are built from unit fractions, composing fractions from unit fractions, decomposing fractions into unit fractions, and using the meaning of fractions and the meaning of multiplication to multiply a fraction by a whole number.

The standards below relate to this Critical Area:

Number and Operations—Fractions 3.NF
Develop understanding of fractions as numbers.

3.NF.1 3.NF.2a, b 3.NF.3a, b, c, d
Measurement and Data 3.MD Represent and interpret data.	3.MD.4

CRITICAL AREA #3: Developing understanding of the structure of rectangular arrays and of area
Students recognize area as an attribute of two-dimensional regions. They measure the area of a shape by finding the total number of same-size units of area required to cover the shape without gaps or overlaps, a square with sides of unit length being the standard unit for measuring area. Students understand that rectangular arrays can be decomposed into identical rows or into identical columns. By decomposing rectangles into rectangular arrays of squares, students connect area to multiplication, and justify using multiplication to determine the area of a rectangle.

The standards below relate to this Critical Area:

Measurement and Data 3.MD Geometric measurement: understand concepts of area and relate area to multiplication and to addition.	3.MD.5a, b 3.MD.6 3.MD.7a, b, c, d
Measurement and Data 3.MD Geometric measurement: recognize perimeter as an attribute of plane figures and distinguish between linear and area measures.	3.MD.8
Geometry 3.G Reason with shapes and their attributes.	3.G.2

CRITICAL AREA #4: Describing and analyzing two-dimensional shapes

Students describe, analyze, and compare properties of two-dimensional shapes. They compare and classify shapes by their sides and angles, and connect these with definitions of shapes. Students also relate their fraction work to geometry by expressing the area of part of a shape as a unit fraction of the whole.

The standards below relate to this Critical Area:

Geometry 3.G
Reason with shapes and their attributes.

3.G.1
Number and Operations—Fractions 3.NF Develop understanding of fractions as numbers.	3.NF.1 3.NF.3a, b, c

STANDARDS AND CLUSTERS BEYOND THE CRITICAL AREAS OF FOCUS

Solving multi-step problems
Students apply previous understanding of addition and subtraction strategies and algorithms to solve multi-step problems. They reason abstractly and quantitatively by modeling problem situations with equations or graphs, assessing their processes and results, and justifying their answers through mental computation and estimation strategies. Students incorporate multiplication and division within 100 to solve multi-step problems with the four operations.

The standards below relate to this cluster:

Operations and Algebraic Thinking 3.OA
Solve problems involving the four operations, and identify and explain patterns in arithmetic. (Previously listed in Critical Area of Focus 1, but listed here when it relates to multi-step problems.)

3.OA.1
Number and Operations in Base Ten 3.NBT Use place value understanding and properties of operations to perform multi-digit arithmetic.	3.NBT.1 3.NBT.2
Measurement and Data 3.MD Solve problems involving measurement and estimation of intervals of time, liquid volumes, and masses of objects.	3.MD.1 3.MD.2
Measurement and Data 3.MD Represent and interpret data.	3.MD.3