Third grade history and social studies

Third grade pulls back out to communities in general: how individuals changed them, how people adapt to the land, how the three levels of government work, and what a hero is when you have to give evidence. The primary source collections become genuinely usable this year because the child can read some of the material himself. Nothing on this site covers third grade social studies.

• K
• 1st
• 2nd
• 3rd
• 4th
• 5th

What to aim for this year

By the end of third grade, a child working at grade level can usually do these.

• Explains how a specific individual changed a community, naming a scientist, inventor, or humanitarian and what actually changed.
• Compares his own community's past and present using photographs, maps, or local records.
• Names and locates the seven continents and five oceans and uses a grid to find a place on a map.
• Explains how people adapt to their physical environment and how they modify it.
• Identifies the local, state, and national levels of government and who leads each one.
• Explains supply, demand, and scarcity, and tells a producer from a consumer with an example.
• Describes the purpose of landmarks and national celebrations such as the Statue of Liberty, Independence Day, and Veterans Day.
• Uses a timeline to sequence events across several decades.
• Defines what makes someone a hero and gives evidence for one person he has studied.
• Identifies customs and traditions belonging to several cultural groups in the United States.

Free, and legal to use

Every one of these costs nothing. The license tag says what you may actually do with it, which is not the same question as whether it is free to read.

• Core Knowledge History and Geography, Grade 3 Free Creative Commons

  Units on world rivers, ancient Rome, the Vikings, the earliest Americans, the thirteen colonies, and world geography, with read-alouds and teacher guides.

  License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International. Attribution in their wording, no commercial use, and derivatives must carry the same or a similar license. Read the license page inside any PDF you download, and leave the embedded images where they are.

• Smithsonian Open Access Free Public domain Not confirmed

  Millions of digitized objects, images, and records released for open use, plus the Learning Lab tool for gathering them into a collection built for one child. Real objects photographed well beat textbook illustrations at this age.

  License: Items marked Open Access are released under CC0, which is a public domain dedication: no attribution required and commercial use permitted. Not everything on Smithsonian sites carries that mark, so confirm on the individual item rather than assuming it applies site-wide. The live rights page could not be re-read directly for this page, so check it yourself before a public reuse.

• Library of Congress classroom materials and primary source sets Free Public domain Not confirmed

  Document bundles with teacher guides on topics that suit third grade: inventors, immigration, the American Revolution, children at work. Browse from the classroom materials hub, since older bookmarked paths have moved.

  License: Mostly public domain federal material, but rights vary per item. Read the item-level rights statement before reusing anything publicly.

• Ben's Guide to the U.S. Government, Journey Person level Free Public domain

  The Government Publishing Office's site on how the government works. The Journey Person tier is built for ages 9 to 13 and covers the branches, elections, and how a bill becomes law, which lines up with the third grade government strand.

  License: United States government work, public domain.

• Digital Public Library of America Free Check the license

  One search across the holdings of thousands of American libraries, archives, and museums, with curated primary source sets by topic. Useful when you want three photographs of one thing rather than one photograph of three.

  License: Free to search. Rights vary by contributing institution and are stated per item. Verify at the item before republishing.

Paid programs, honestly

Nothing here is required. These are the programs families most often ask about, with the real drawback of each one named rather than skipped.

• The Story of the World, Volume 3: Early Modern Times Paid Text plus activity book, priced separately. Publisher pricing not confirmed for this page.

  Good at: Year three of the cycle covers roughly 1600 to 1850, so it finally overlaps American history in a serious way. Solid chapters on the American Revolution and on independence movements elsewhere.

  Drawback: The worldwide sweep means each country gets a few pages, so the American Revolution arrives and leaves quickly. The reading level is starting to feel young for a strong third grade reader.

  Suits: A family three years into the cycle that wants to finish it, supplementing the American sections.

• Curiosity Chronicles Paid PDF editions cost less than print. Current pricing not confirmed; check the publisher's shop.

  Good at: Secular by explicit policy, global, and written as a dialogue between two characters, Mona and Ted, which some children sit through far more happily than a straight narrative. The dialogue format is used deliberately to present competing views of the same event. It covers parts of the world most spines skip.

  Drawback: The dialogue format divides people sharply, and a child who dislikes it will dislike the whole year. The perspective is deliberately inclusive by design, which is a mismatch for some families. Light on American civics.

  Suits: A secular family with a child who prefers conversation to narration, and who wants a wider world than the standard cycle offers.

• Tapestry of Grace (Lampstand Press) Paid Sold by the unit or as a digital year plan, with the year plan costing several times a single unit, plus books on top. Confirm current pricing at the publisher.

  Good at: One four-year cycle that every child in the family works through at his own level in the same week. For a household spanning six to sixteen, that structure saves a real amount of parental time.

  Drawback: Genuinely heavy. Teacher preparation is substantial and many families stop inside a year. Christian and classical by design, and the book list you buy or borrow on top of the plan is long and adds real cost. Check which year of the cycle covers what before you buy, because the periods do not fall where people assume.

  Suits: A large, multi-age Christian family with the time to prepare and the appetite for a rigorous plan.

• Memoria Press Paid Individual guides are inexpensive; full grade packages run into the hundreds. Confirm current pricing before ordering.

  Good at: Classical, structured, and strong on memory work. The Famous Men series gives a child a real stock of named people and deeds rather than a set of themes.

  Drawback: Dry by design and heavy on recitation. Christian and classical framing throughout. Full grade packages are expensive and the pieces do not always make sense bought individually.

  Suits: A family that wants explicit structure and memory work, and whose child is content with recitation.

• The Mystery of History, Volume 1 Paid Sold by volume, with audio and companion guides priced separately. Confirm current pricing at the publisher.

  Good at: Chronological world history that deliberately places biblical events alongside the rest of the ancient timeline, which is what some families are specifically looking for and cannot find elsewhere.

  Drawback: Openly providential, meaning it interprets historical events theologically rather than only describing them, and the publisher's own site describes it as a Christian world history curriculum. Parents who buy it without knowing that are surprised. Text-heavy for a third grader reading alone. Note the correct web address: the shorter mysteryofhistory.com is a parked domain listed for sale and is not the publisher.

  Suits: A Christian family that specifically wants biblical chronology integrated into world history.

Prices are approximate and change often. Check with the publisher before you buy. We describe and link to these programs; none of their material is hosted here.

What a week looks like

1. Three spine readings a week, with the child reading some of it himself now.
2. One primary source session: a photograph, a document, or a poster from the Library of Congress or DPLA, with the question 'what can you tell me just from looking at this'.
3. One government or civics item from Ben's Guide, fifteen minutes.
4. One geography task using continents, oceans, and a map grid.
5. A biography a month. Pick the person, then require one piece of evidence for why he counts as a hero.

Practice it here, free

These rooms on this site cover part of the year's work. No sign-up, and they work offline.

• know — Continents and oceans for the geography strand, and ancient Egypt as background for the ancient units.
• map — Map reading, which supports the grid and locations milestone.
• money — Money and exchange, which touches the supply, demand, and scarcity milestone.
• order — Sequencing, which supports building a timeline across decades.

The rest of third grade