Students in grade three learn more about our connections to the past and the ways in which particularly local, but also regional and national, government and traditions have developed and left their marks on current society, providing common memories. Emphasis is on the physical and cultural landscape of California, including the study of American Indians, the subsequent arrival of immigrants and the impact they have had in forming the character of our contemporary society.

3.1 Students describe the physical and human geography and use maps, tables, graphs, photographs, and charts to organize information about people, places and environments in a spatial context by:

1. identifying geographical features found in their local region (e.g., deserts, mountains, valleys, hills, coastal areas, oceans, lakes)
2. tracing the ways in which people have used the resources of the local region and modified the physical environment (e.g., a dam constructed upstream changed a river or coastline)

3.2 Students describe the American Indian nations in their local region long ago and in the recent past, in terms of:

1. the national identities, religious beliefs, customs, and various folklore traditions
2. how physical geography including climate influenced the way the local Indian nation(s) adapted to their natural environment (e.g., how they obtained their food, clothing, tools)
3. the economy and systems of government, particularly those with tribal constitutions, and their relationship to federal and state governments
4. the interaction of new settlers with the already established Indians of the region

3.3 Students draw from historical and community resources to organize the sequence of events in local history and describe how each period of settlement left its mark on the land, in terms of:

1. the explorers who visited here, the newcomers who settled here, and the people who continue to come to the region, including their cultural and religious traditions and contributions
2. the economies established by settlers and their influence on the present-day economy, with emphasis on the importance of private property and entrepreneurship
3. why their community was established, how individuals and families contributed to its founding and development, and how the community has changed over time, drawing upon primary sources (e.g., maps, photographs, oral histories, letters, newspapers)

3.4 Students understand the role of rules and laws in our daily lives, and the basic structure of the United States government, in terms of:

1. why we have rules, laws, and the U.S. Constitution; the role of citizenship in promoting rules and laws; the consequences for violating rules and laws
2. the importance of public virtue and the role of citizens, including how to participate in a classroom, community and in civic life
3. the stories behind important local and national landmarks, symbols and essential documents that create a sense of community among citizens and exemplify cherished ideals (e.g., the US flag, the bald eagle, the Statute of Liberty, the US Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the US Capitol)
4. the three branches of government (with an emphasis on local government)
5. how California, the other states, and sovereign tribes combine to make the nation and participate in the federal system
6. the lives of American heroes who took risks to secure freedoms (e.g., biographies of Anne Hutchinson, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Martin Luther King, Jr.)

3.5 Students demonstrate basic economic reasoning skills and an understanding of the economy of the local region, in terms of:

1. how local producers have used natural resources, human resources and capital resources to produce goods and services in the past and the present
2. how some things are made locally, some elsewhere in the US, and some abroad
3. how individual economic choices involve tradeoffs and the evaluation of benefits and costs
4. how pupils' "work" in school develops their personal human capital

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