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What Grade 3 covers in British Columbia — and how to practise it at home

Grade 3 is a step-up year: multiplication arrives, reading shifts from learning-to-read toward reading-to-learn. Here is the year as BC schools actually teach it — unit by unit, in order — so you can see what your child is working on right now, and what's coming next.

7 unitsMath
4 unitsScience
5 unitsSocial Studies
43 weeksEnglish & French

Math — BC's curriculum, in teaching order

British Columbia math runs as a sequence: each unit builds on the one before it. The week ranges below follow the school year from September; teachers vary pacing.

1

Numbers to 1000

Weeks 1–6 · September–October

Number concepts to 1000, skip-counting from any starting point, place value of 100s/10s/1s with zero as a placeholder, and comparing, ordering, and estimating quantities.

2

Addition and Subtraction to 1000

Weeks 7–12 · October–November

Adding and subtracting to 1000 with flexible decomposing, regrouping, and compensating, estimating sums and differences, and recalling facts to 20.

3

Multiplication and Division Concepts

Weeks 13–19 · November–January

Understanding multiplication as groups of, arrays, and repeated addition, and division as sharing, grouping, and repeated subtraction, connected to skip-counting (no memorization of facts).

Worth watching: this is the year times tables form. Little and often beats cramming — they need to be automatic before Grade 4 uses them everywhere.

4

Fractions

Weeks 20–26 · January–February

Fraction concepts as equal parts of a region, set, or linear model, equal partitioning and equal sharing, and connecting pictorial models to symbolic notation; any comparing of fractions must use the SAME denominator or SAME numerator only — never compare fractions that differ in BOTH numerator and denominator (e.g. 3/8 vs 4/6), and do not use equivalent fractions or common denominators.

5

Patterns and Equations

Weeks 27–32 · March–April

Increasing and decreasing patterns, describing pattern rules with words and numbers, one-step addition and subtraction equations with an unknown, and even and odd numbers.

6

Geometry, Measurement and Time

Weeks 33–38 · April–May

Constructing and describing 3D shapes by faces, edges, and vertices, measuring with standard units (linear, mass, capacity), the concepts of perimeter and area, and concepts of time.

7

Data and Money

Weeks 39–43 · May–June

One-to-one bar graphs, pictographs, charts, and tables, likelihood of simulated events, and counting mixed coins and bills to $100 with earning and payment.

Try one — a real Grade 3 question

Math · Division

There are 18 cookies shared equally among 3 friends. How many cookies does each friend get?

A typical first answer
15
Homework Hub's feedback
It looks like you subtracted 3. But "shared equally" means splitting into equal groups — 18 split into 3 equal groups. How many in each group?
Next try
6
Yes — 18 ÷ 3 = 6 cookies each. Sharing equally is division. 🍪

Science across the year

1

Biodiversity and Ecosystems

Weeks 1–11 · September–November

Biodiversity in the local environment and how living things are grouped and interact in ecosystems through populations, communities, food chains, and food webs.

2

Matter and Particles

Weeks 12–22 · November–January

Matter as anything that has mass and takes up space, and atoms as the building blocks of all matter.

3

Thermal Energy

Weeks 23–32 · February–April

Sources of thermal energy and how thermal energy transfers between objects by conduction, convection, and radiation.

4

Landforms, Wind, Water, and Ice

Weeks 33–43 · April–June

Major local landforms and the observable changes caused by erosion and deposition by wind, water, and ice.

Science · Plants

What do plants need to make their own food?

A typical first answer
They eat soil through their roots.
Homework Hub's feedback
Lots of people think that! Roots do drink water and minerals — but that's not food. Plants make food in their LEAVES, and they need something bright to do it…
Next try
Sunlight, water, and air.
Exactly — leaves use sunlight, water, and air to make the plant's food. Soil helps, but sunshine is the kitchen. 🌱

Social Studies

1

Cultures and Ways of Life of Indigenous Peoples

Weeks 1–9 · September–October

The cultural characteristics and ways of life of local First Peoples and global indigenous peoples — worldview, celebrations, ceremonies, dance, music, art, values, kinship, and traditional teachings.

2

Shared Aspects of Human Life

Weeks 10–18 · November–December

Aspects of life shared by and common to peoples and cultures, such as family, work, education, and systems of ethics and spirituality.

3

Cultural and Technological Innovations

Weeks 19–27 · January–March

The cultural and technological innovations of global and local indigenous peoples, including transportation, shelter, tools, hunting and fishing techniques, food cultivation, art, music, and weaving.

4

Governance and Social Organization

Weeks 28–35 · March–April

Governance and social organization in local and global indigenous societies, including consensus, confederacies, Elders, band councils, and traditional leadership.

5

Evidence of the Past and the Land

Weeks 36–43 · May–June

Oral history, traditional stories, and artifacts as evidence about past First Peoples cultures and the relationship between humans and their environment — petroglyphs, sacred places, hunting and fishing, and respect for the land.

English & French — skills that build weekly, not units

How language works in Grade 3

Unlike math and science, the language curriculum isn't taught as a sequence of units — it's a set of skills that deepen all year: reading comprehension and inference, writing structure and conventions, vocabulary, and oral communication. French works the same way. Homework Hub practises these as grade-matched weekly skills — a reading passage with real comprehension questions, a sentence to fix, a short prompt to write to — rather than pretending there's a unit list.

Practice that follows this exact sequence

Homework Hub generates fresh questions matched to these very units — in season, at your child's level, marked with hints that teach. You set the days; it does the rest.

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This page is generated from the same curriculum map that powers Homework Hub's practice questions (BC's curriculum and current science and social studies expectations, described in our own words). School boards and teachers vary pacing — week ranges are a typical rhythm, not a rule.