The PYP mathematics program consists of five interwoven strands: number, pattern and function, data handling, measurement and shape and space. In number and pattern and function students inquire into our number system and its operations, patterns and functions. In data handling, measurement and shape and space students are learning the skills to research, describe, represent and understand the world around them.

By the end of Grade 3 students are expected to:
• Read, write and order whole numbers to 1000; know what each digit represents
• Count on or back in tens or hundreds from any two- or three- digit number
• Round numbers less than 1000 to the nearest 10 or 100
• Recognise simple fractions (halves, quarters, thirds, fifths and tenths) that are several parts of a whole
• Use known number facts and place value to add or subtract mentally, including pairs of two-digit numbers
• Know facts for the multiplication tables 2, 3, 4, 5 and 10
• Add or subtract mentally a ‘near multiple of 10’ (e.g. 11; 19) to or from a two-digit number
• Read, write and model division facts corresponding to the 2, 3, 4, 5 and 10 multiplication tables
• Recognise that division is the inverse of multiplication
• Know and use the relationships between familiar units of length, mass and capacity
• Sort, describe and model regular and irregular polygons, using criteria such as number of right angles, whether or not they are regular, have symmetrical properties
• Use units of time and know the relationships between them
• Read the time to five minute intervals on digital and analogue clocks
• Choose and use appropriate number operations and ways of calculating (mental, mental with jottings, pencil and paper) to solve problems
• Model addition and subtraction using money
• Design a survey and process and interpret the data
• Display data in bar graphs, beginning to use a scale
• Create tree, Carroll, Venn and other diagrams from sets of data

Oral Communication: Speaking and Listening

Students will be given the opportunity to talk in all areas of the curriculum in order to clarify concepts and encourage the correct use of relevant vocabulary. They will use speech with increasing responsibility, participating appropriately in discussions in both small and large groups. They will use oral language to articulate and reflect on learning. Students will participate in drama activities and will have the opportunity to listen to other speakers from outside the classroom or through different media. They will listen attentively and appreciatively being able to retell and reflect upon what they have heard.

Written communication: reading
The students will become confident in selecting their own reading material. They will read and share a range of texts, both fictional and informational demonstrating ways of responding to a text, drawing upon explicit information in the text in order to comprehend it.
They will focus on examining story structure by looking at the language and style used in traditional tales, the characters in these stories and the role they play. They will continue to develop reading conventions and strategies:
The students will continue to practise and extend sight recognition of words which occur frequently in texts and in everyday language. They will build up their own personally significant word bank. The students are taught how to segment words into sounds and how word parts and words work.
The students are taught how punctuation is used to clarify the meaning of a text and how to interpret the text by using additional strategies e.g. connecting, comparing, predicting, self-questioning.
The students will learn to locate and select information in texts, identifying the main points.

Written communication: writing

The students are provided with authentic purposes for writing to ensure that their tasks are meaningful.
In Grade 3 students write:
• Their own stories showing greater awareness of the structure, the role of characters and settings
• A story modelled on a traditional tale
• A simple plan before writing
• Poetry
• In different forms which are related to the units of inquiry
• Book reviews
• Dialogue
The students are taught the conventions and skills of writing.
They are taught:
• How to spell more complex words
• The spelling of common irregular words in English
• To develop spelling strategies and learn some basic spelling rules
• To use a dictionary to look for correct spellings
• To look at the construction of sentences
• To use and extend vocabulary by making collections of words from units of inquiry or reading
• To use a thesaurus to extend vocabulary
• To use punctuation (full stops, capital letters, question marks, exclamation marks and speech marks)


Visual communication: viewing and presenting
The students will:
• Experience a wide range of visual media
• Respond to viewing experiences both orally and in writing
• Use a variety of media to create presentations