NGSS · Grade 3
Represent data in tables and graphical displays to describe typical weather conditions expected during a particular season.
Clarification statement: Examples of data could include average temperature, precipitation, and wind direction.
Assessment boundary: Assessment of graphical displays is limited to pictographs and bar graphs. Assessment does not include climate change.
Why water teaches this standard well
Precipitation is one of the standard's own named data types, so rainfall charts do double duty here and in math class, where scaled bar graphs are a Grade 3 expectation. Graphing monthly rainfall also opens the practical question utilities face every year: which seasons fill the reservoir and which draw it down.
Materials tagged with this code are written to the full standard , including its clarification statement and assessment boundary, and each carries a written note explaining the alignment. See how we review materials.
Grade 3 Lesson plan
A 45-minute grade 3 lesson where students graph four weeks of a fictional school rain gauge's readings on a scaled bar graph and connect the totals to the water cycle.
Grade 3 Worksheet
A grade 3 worksheet using six months of invented snow-depth readings from a mountain ridge, with a scaled bar graph and questions about spring melt.
Grade 3 Math problem set
Nine grade 3 problems on four years of rainy-day counts from a fictional town, where students add and compare to judge whether one dry summer was unusual.
Grade 3 Lab / experiment
Third graders build a working rain gauge from a bottle, site it outdoors correctly, and keep a month-long class rainfall log they total and graph on a scaled bar graph.