Numbers to 1000
Grade 3 is where the formal methods arrive. Adding in columns, the times tables to 10 × 10, and a clock with two hands — three things that become automatic this year and are used for the next decade.
What Alberta asks for by the end of Grade 3
The subject: Mathematics
- Add and subtract numbers within 1000 using the standard written methods.
- Recall multiplication facts to 10 × 10 and the division facts that go with them.
- Recognize parallel, perpendicular and equal sides in 2‑D shapes.
- Measure length using metric units.
- Tell the time on analog and digital clocks.
The word recall is doing the same work it did in Grade 1. A child who works out 7 × 8 by adding eights has not met the outcome, however reliably they reach 56.
The words, first
These are the terms a teacher will use at a parent interview, defined before anything below uses them.
| Word | What it means |
|---|---|
| Standard algorithm | The column method for adding and subtracting, with carrying and borrowing. Alberta names it explicitly in Grade 3. |
| Regrouping | Trading ten ones for a ten, or a ten for ten ones. Carrying and borrowing are the same idea written down. |
| Multiplication fact | A single product known outright: 7 × 8 = 56. There are 100 of them to 10 × 10, and commutativity halves the work. |
| Commutative | Order does not change the answer: 4 × 6 = 6 × 4. True for multiplication and addition, false for subtraction and division. |
| Array | A rectangle of rows and columns. The picture behind a multiplication fact, and the reason it is commutative. |
| Fact family | 3 × 4 = 12, 4 × 3 = 12, 12 ÷ 3 = 4, 12 ÷ 4 = 3. Learning division alongside multiplication rather than after it. |
| Parallel | Two lines always the same distance apart. They never meet, however far they are extended. |
| Perpendicular | Two lines meeting at a right angle. |
| Metric units | Millimetres, centimetres, metres, kilometres. Each is ten, a hundred or a thousand times the last, which is the whole advantage of the system. |
| Analog / digital | A clock with hands, and a clock with numbers. Reading the first is harder and is the outcome. |
4 rows of 6
6 rows of 4
What to do at home
- Drill the facts, briefly and often — Five minutes a day beats an hour on Sunday. Ask for an answer in about a second — anything slower is a fact not yet learnt, and knowing which ones is the useful part.
- Show the array once — Six rows of four and four rows of six, in buttons. It halves the number of facts to learn and it is a reason rather than a rule.
- Use an analog clock — A real one on a wall. “How long until dinner?” is a better question than a worksheet, because the answer matters.
- Measure in millimetres too — A ruler has both. Noticing that ten millimetres make a centimetre is the metric system's whole trick.
- Find parallel and perpendicular — Window frames, floor tiles, the edges of a book. Both words become obvious once they have been pointed at something real.
- Do one column sum on paper — With them explaining each step out loud. If they cannot say why they carried, the method is being copied rather than understood.
Sheets you can print for this
- Adding in columns — within 1000
- Subtracting in columns — within 1000
- Times tables — sixteen facts
- Division facts — the other half of the family
- What time is it? — analog and digital
- Parallel, perpendicular, equal — looking at sides
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.