Grade 3 · Alberta
Grade 3: the year things get formal
Grade 3 is where the methods arrive: adding in columns, the times tables, a clock with two hands, and a social studies unit about Alberta itself. This page is for the grown-up — what Alberta asks for, what the words mean, and what to do about it at home.
The five learning areas
Each one starts with what Alberta asks for, defines the words teachers use, and then gives you things to try at home.
English language arts and literature
Reading and writing
Reading aloud so it sounds like something, oral traditions, writing that was planned, and grammar that makes meaning clearer.
Open reading and writing
Mathematics
Numbers to 1000
The standard written methods, the times tables, parallel and perpendicular sides, measuring in metric units, and telling the time.
Open numbers to 1000
Science
Looking closely
Water changing state, forces and simple machines, how Earth's surface changes, fossils, and where scientific knowledge comes from.
Open looking closely
Social studies
Alberta and the prairies
The province itself: its regions and borders, the peoples who built it, its governments and symbols, its resources, and what it means to give.
Open alberta and the prairies
Physical education and wellness
Moving and feeling good
Planning to be active, movement skills applied, resolving conflict fairly, how cooking changes food, consent, and spending responsibly.
Open moving and feeling good
For the child
23 printable sheets
Printables
Reading with expression, planning and revising, columns to 1000, the times tables, telling the time, the water cycle, simple machines, and Alberta's map, symbols and resources.
Print a sheet
3 games
Games
Times Dash, Clock Face, Word Sort — facts, clocks and grammar.
Play a game
What changes from Grade 2
Three things become formal this year, and all three are used for the next decade.
- The written methods. Alberta names the standard algorithms explicitly: adding and subtracting in columns, within 1000. Carrying and borrowing stop being optional strategies and become the method.
- The times tables. All of them to 10 × 10, and the division facts that go with them. The outcome says recall, which means an answer in about a second rather than one that can be worked out.
- Alberta itself. Grade 2 looked at Canada; Grade 3 looks at this province — its regions, its peoples, its governments and what comes out of its ground.
Grade 3 is also the last year of the new K–3 block. The social studies curriculum for it came into classrooms in September 2025, which makes it the newest material on this site and the least likely to match what a parent remembers.
The subjects are the same six as every year: English language arts and literature, mathematics, science, social studies, physical education and wellness, and fine arts. Fine arts is still taught from the older program of studies, so it is not covered here.
How to use this
- Start with a learning area. Each one gives the actual expectations, then defines the words — oral tradition, standard algorithm, strata, municipal government — that teachers use and parents rarely hear explained.
- Try the home ideas. Several of them are specific to Alberta: the badlands, the treaties, the pumpjacks, the French place names.
- Print a sheet when you want something on paper. Every one has a line of instructions for you at the top and an answer note underneath.
- Hand over a game when you need ten quiet minutes. No account, no advertising, nothing that asks for money.
The expectations above are paraphrased from Alberta Education's New K–6 curriculum fact sheets, which publish a snapshot of each grade rather than the complete program of studies. Alberta's full programs are at alberta.ca/curriculum.