Teach Class 3 Maths at home, one chapter at a time

Long before numbers, people kept count with marks: one mark per cow going out, one struck off per cow coming home. Your child uses tally marks, counts the letters in names, and sorts people and things into groups to compare them.

• tally
• group of five
• count
• longest
• shortest
• more
• fewer

Your child builds toys and houses from boxes, bottles and cones, names the shapes (cube, cuboid, cylinder, cone), talks about faces, edges and corners, and describes where each part sits: on top of, between, under.

• cube
• cuboid
• cylinder
• cone
• face
• edge
• on top of
• between
• under

Numbers now go past 100 to 200. Your child estimates how many things there are, then counts in hundreds, tens and ones to check. The chapter also tells the story of the ten digits and zero, invented in ancient India.

• estimate
• hundred
• tens
• ones
• more than
• less than
• about

Stories with Nani Maa carry lots of adding and subtracting to 100: sweets, books, stamps and apples. The chapter pushes mental strategies: making 10, jumping on a number line, using a 100 grid, and estimating before working it out.

• sum
• total
• difference
• more
• less
• estimate
• jump
• make 10

Your child draws rangoli on dot paper, opens up boxes to see the flat shapes inside, and meets the square corner (a right angle). They learn what makes a shape a square, rectangle, triangle or circle.

• square corner
• side
• corner
• rectangle
• square
• triangle
• circle
• net

At a mela, children count torans, bangles and toffees past 200 and 300. The big idea: the same counting rules work every time; 298, 299, then a new hundred, 300. Hundreds, tens and ones tell you any number.

• hundred
• tens
• ones
• count on
• how many more
• estimate

Making rakhis needs 1 flower, 2 threads and 4 beads each. For 5 rakhis, that is 5 × 1, 5 × 2 and 5 × 4. Your child builds tables, multiplies by 10 and 5, and turns it round: 30 beads make how many rakhis? That is division.

• times
• ×
• groups of
• table
• share
• ÷
• each

Sharing a paratha or chikki fairly means cutting it into two equal parts: each part is a half. Your child folds paper, checks whether pieces are really equal, and learns that two halves make one whole.

• half
• halves
• whole
• equal parts
• fold
• fair

Birbal’s crow count leads to numbers up to a thousand. Your child shows three-digit numbers with hundreds tiles, tens strips and ones, places them on a number line, and compares them.

• hundreds
• tens
• ones
• thousand
• place
• compare
• closer to

Measuring with handspans and strings gives different answers for different people, so your child moves to standard units: the metre and the centimetre. They estimate first, then measure with a ruler or a metre-long rope.

• metre
• centimetre
• ruler
• estimate
• longer
• shorter
• about

Which glass holds more? Pour them into same-sized glasses to find out. Your child compares containers, uses a 1 litre bottle as a unit, and compares weights by lifting and with a simple balance.

• litre
• holds more
• holds less
• heavy
• light
• balance
• about

A plant nursery gives and takes saplings: 364 + 52, 230 − 75. Your child draws a box diagram to see what is known, then adds and subtracts in hundreds, tens and ones, regrouping when needed, and checks on a number line.

• hundreds
• tens
• ones
• regroup
• carry
• borrow
• check

Your child makes a calendar for a month, finds days and dates, works out ages from birth dates, and reads the clock to quarter past and half past. They also measure how many minutes everyday jobs take.

• date
• day
• month
• year
• quarter past
• half past
• minutes
• hours

At the fair, your child makes bead malas and masks that look the same on both sides (symmetry), fits tiles together without gaps, and follows a map using left, right and forward.

• symmetry
• same on both sides
• fold line
• tile
• no gaps
• left
• right
• forward