Math Skills Brush-Up with Kids Academy: Getting Ready for Third Grade
July 20, 2026
As your child prepares to transition from second to third grade, it’s important to remember that there are many things that you can do at home to set them up for success in math. While many skills will be taught explicitly by your child’s teacher during the school year, there are important prerequisite skills that will give them a step up to starting third grade.
Building a Strong Number Sense
Number sense refers to the intuitive understanding of what numbers represent and how they relate to one another. As students move toward intermediate grades, they will begin to work with much larger numbers.
Students entering third grade should have a conceptual as well as concrete understanding of reading, writing, and comparing numbers up through 1,000. You can help your child understand these ideas by writing out numbers in standard form (e.g. 128) as well as word form (one hundred twenty-eight). You can also show your child extended number lines to show the relationships between numbers, using terms like greater than and less than.
Consider using digital resources to reinforce and practice skills.
Worksheet: Comparing Biodiversity: Forest Animals
Worksheet: Counting on Pollination: Bees
Understanding Place Value
Build upon your child’s existing number sense by diving into an exploration of place value. In math, we use a base-ten system, meaning that we have ten digits (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9). As we count from 0 to 9, we continue through the digits from least to greatest. Once we get past 9, we add a place value (the tens place) and write the digit 1 in the tens place and the digit 0 in the ones place. This continues with greater and greater place values (e.g. hundreds, thousands, ten thousands).
As students enter intermediate grades, they will begin to explore the standard algorithm for addition and subtraction, so place value is key! Students will need to understand how to “regroup” or “trade” between place values – for example, your child will need to practice representing the number 12 as 1 ten and 2 ones or as 12 ones. This concept is important for regrouping and fluent addition/subtraction of larger numbers.
Help your child understand the role place value plays in math with place value models and digital resources.
Video: Place Value: Trading Tens for Hundreds
Worksheet: Base Ten Blocks: Hundreds
Worksheet: Expanded Form Practice
Fluently Adding and Subtracting Within 100
As students become more comfortable with number sense and place value, fluency in addition and subtraction must be emphasized. To be fluent, a student needs an efficient method for finding sums and differences.
Practicing basic addition and subtraction facts every day for just a few minute increases automaticity – the ability to compute quickly and accurately. Being able to solve simple addition and subtraction problems frees up mental load for more complicated thinking processes.
Addition and subtraction are inverse operations, meaning that they are exactly opposite and “undo” each other. Once a student knows one addition fact, he/she/they also know all the other members of the fact family. For example, if I know that 3 + 5 = 8, then I also know that 5 + 3 = 8, 8 – 5 = 3, and 8 – 3 = 5. Helping your child recognize these relationships will continue to build their ability to add and subtract fluently.
Consider using these digital resources to help your child practice addition and subtraction.
Quiz: Add and Subtract Within 1,000, Regrouping or Borrowing From 2 Places
Quiz: Relate Addition to Subtraction
Quiz: Standard Addition and Subtraction With and Without Regrouping
Building Foundations for Multiplication
As your child begins to master fluent addition and subtraction, you can begin to help lay the foundation for multiplication.
Multiplication is simply repeated addition – an efficient way to represent equal groups and determine a product (total). Start helping your child understand that multiplication means number of groups x number in each group = total. Create equal groups of manipulatives (concrete objects that can be held and moved) and have your child explain efficient ways for finding the total (e.g. skip-counting).
Consider using these online learning resources to help get your child ready for this new skill.
Worksheet: Multiplication Tea Party
Quiz: Relating Addition to Multiplication and Arrays
So… what’s the most important skill for kids entering third grade?
Beyond learning the mathematical skills above, the best thing you can do for your child entering third grade is to encourage the following:
- Be persistent. Math isn’t easy, but it’s worth it! Remind your child that new skills aren’t always going to land the first time they are practiced. Students need to have grit and determination to persevere through challenges.
- Pay attention. You can’t learn from others if you aren’t listening attentively! Help your child build attention stamina by increasing time spent on activities and listening to your teaching. You are your child’s first teacher, and you set the expectation for how they will behave and learn in school!
- Use mathematical language. In school, students are expected to explain their thinking, not just compute answers. Help your child practice this skill by asking how they found answers and guiding them through clear, step-by-step language. Once they are comfortable verbally explaining their thinking, encourage them to practice writing their explanations in a way that others can understand.
- Stay positive. Encourage your child to try new things, take risks, and remain committed to learning even when it’s tough. Having a positive, open-minded outlook will help your child be successful in third grade and beyond!