Focus on Understanding This year students will be learning the Mathematics Florida Standards (MAFS). One of the most important things about the standards is that students need to DEEPLY understand math concepts.

Critical Areas The MAFS have Critical Areas for each grade level, these are the main focus of math instruction. For Third Grade, these are:  Developing understanding of multiplication and division and strategies for multiplication and division within 100  Developing understanding of fractions, especially unit fractions (fractions with numerator 1)  Developing understanding of the structure of rectangular arrays and of area  Describing and analyzing two-dimensional shapes  Using grade-level appropriate Mathematical Practices

This is HOW students will be learning about the content.

Report Card The most important standards for Third Grade are evaluated on the report card:  *Uses place value concepts to 1,000 and demonstrates understanding of fractions as numbers  *Uses and explains strategies to solve addition, subtraction, multiplication and division problems  Uses equations to represent word problems and explains arithmetic patterns  *Solves measurement problems, finds perimeter and area of figures, and tells time to the nearest minute  Constructs and analyzes line plots, scaled picture graphs, and scaled bar graphs  *Classifies 2-D shapes and partitions shapes into equal areas  *Uses grade-level appropriate mathematical practices *Denotes critical Power Standard for the grade level.

Investigations To help build a deep understanding, we will be spending the majority of our time working with Investigations in Number, Data, and Space.

Investigations in Class In school, students:  investigate problems  work in collaborative groups  use various strategies  communicate thinking orally and in writing  play educational games

Investigations at Home At home, students may be asked to:  practice an activity or game from class  collect some information to be used in class  solve a few problems and explain how they solved the problems  solve problems in more than one way

Helping at Home You can help your child by:  reading all of the Family Letters that are sent home  helping your child find a place at home to keep game materials and directions that are sent home  playing the games together that are sent home

Helping at Home  asking your child questions when they are stuck rather than giving them an answer “What do you need to find out?” “How can you get started?” “Have you done anything like this in school?”  keeping a positive attitude about math

Helping at Home Online Student and Parent access to math software and Student Math Handbook

Florida Standards Assessment (FSA)  Students in 3 rd grade will take the Math FSA at the beginning of Quarter 4.  FSA will test students’ understanding of the MAFS.  The questions on FSA expect students to deeply understand concepts. 

FSA Sample 3 rd Grade Question

Parent Resources Visit the District website’s Elementary Math page for more information about the 3 rd Grade standards, our math program, and how you can assist your child: Visit the Investigations website for games and activities to play online: s_index/