Third grade (also called grade three, equivalent to Year 4 in England) is a year of primary education in many countries. It is the third school year of primary school. Students are usually 8–9 years old. Examples of the American syllabus In mathematics, students are usually sometimes generally introduced to multiplication and division facts, place value to thousands or ten thousands, and estimation. Depending on the elementary school, third grade students may even begin to work on long division, such as dividings in the double digits, hundreds, and thousands. Decimals (to tenths only) are sometimes generally introduced. Students begin to work on problem-solving skills working to explain their thinking in mathematical terms. In science, third grade students are taught basic physics and chemistry. Weather and climate are also sometimes taught. The concept of atoms and molecules are common, the states of matter, and energy, along with basic chemical elements such as oxygen, hydrogen, gold, zinc, and iron. Nutrition is also sometimes taught in third grade along with chemistry. Social studies begins a study of the culture of the United States and basic idea of the early part of the United States from the time of the Native Americans to the Civil War. Outward expansion and the gold rush are covered. In reading and language arts, third grade students begin working more on text comprehension by using informational articles or different genre books than decoding strategies. Students also begin reading harder chapter books. They read and distinguish between a variety of book genres: realistic fiction, non-fiction, poetry, fantasy, historical fiction, science fiction and folktales. Kids learn reading, vocabulary, and writing strategies such as finding main idea, finding theme, citing textual evidence , compare and contrast, nouns, verbs, context clues, writing narratives, writing research reports, writing explanatory essays, and writing persuasive and argumentative pieces. Grade 3 students learn how to work on projects on their own and with others. This may start as early as second grade and first grade as well. Social skills, empathy and leadership are considered by some educators to be as important to develop as the academic skills of reading, writing and arithmetic. Australian equivalent In Australia, this level of class is called Year 3. Children generally start this level between the ages of eight and nine. Brazilian equivalent In Brazil, third grade is the terceiro ano do Ensino Fundamental I, in this case, children begin their first