Third Grade Math with Confidence Instructor Guide

Are you looking for a “Goldilocks” math curriculum? You know, the one that is not too hard, not too easy, but just right. Math with Confidence may pass the Goldilocks test for your child! Not only does it provide the right level of challenge for most children, but it also passes the Goldilocks test for parents with well defined goals, sequenced lessons, open and go scripted lessons, and easy to implement activities. The curriculum focuses on mastery with topical units and spiral review. Currently five levels are completed (K-4), with Grades 5 expected Summer 2025, and Grade 6 Summer 2026.  The Instructor Guide and Student Workbook(s) are required to successfully teach the course.

Instructor Guides begin with introductory information and a helpful “how to use” section which gives parents the tools to confidently teach math. Scripted lessons for the teacher and easy to implement activities that use household items, along with a few common math manipulatives, enable the Instructor Guide to equip parents to be successful. From kindergarten through 2nd grade, there are four teaching days and one optional enrichment or review day, for a total of 32 weeks. Weekly lessons have the same format: Overview of the week, lesson notes, and materials list for activities. Each lesson includes interactive teaching time and independent workbook time. The amount of time spent on each lesson will vary depending on the grade level. Kindergarten lessons will take about 15-20 minutes advancing to 25-35 minutes in Grade 4. Enrichment or review activities focus on games/activities or a suggested read aloud math book of the week. Beginning in Grade 3, the lessons have been grouped into units rather than weeks to provide more schedule flexibility. There are 16 units (128 regular lessons) in Grade 3, and each unit concludes with an optional enrichment activity and suggested picture book to read together. Guides also include Answer Keys and Blackline master’s which are reproducible for your immediate family.

Colorful, consumable Student Workbooks provide independent daily work. Beginning with Grade 3, the Student Workbook is divided into 2 parts: Part A covering Units 1-8 and Part B Units 9-16. The Student Workbooks are reproducible for immediate family members, although the publisher has made great effort to keep the student workbooks affordable for families. Manipulative Kits are available for your convenience.

Beginning with a review of addition and subtraction, this one-year math course thoroughly covers multiplication and division facts to 100, adding and subtracting 4-digit numbers, multi-step word problems, perimeter and area of rectangles, adding/subtracting fractions, geometry, elapsed time, and weight and capacity. The text is divided into 16 units with each unit containing 6-12 lessons for a total of 144 total lessons: 128 regular and 16 optional enrichment lessons. Units conclude with a Wrap that may be used informally to review concepts or as an end of Unit Test. In Grade 3, the Student Workbook is divided into 2 parts: Part A covering Units 1-8 and Part B Units 9-16. An optional Manipulative Kit is available with the required math manipulatives.

A placement test is not available. Your child, however, is ready to start Third Grade Math with Confidence if he/she can:

•    Count to 1,000 by 1s, 2s, 5s, and 10s
•    Read, write, and compare 3-digit numbers
•    Understand place-value in 3-digit numbers
•    Know addition and subtraction facts to 100
•    Know how to use place-value strategies to solve mental math problems like 55+37, 36+8, 90-42, or 74-6
•    Know how to add and subtract two and three-digit numbers with the standard written process (“stack method” or “borrowing and carrying.”)