There is, for example, the third-grade boy from Deer Isle, Me., whose school report reads in its entirety, "George Washington was born off island."

A 36-year-old landscape worker was arrested today and charged with the kidnapping, sexual assault and murder of a third-grade boy who vanished on May 20 after attending a church carnival near his home, the authorities said tonight.

Fior Rodriguez, the mother of a third-grade boy at P.S. 89, and the organizer of several parent demonstrations, said most parents were relieved to see the principal reassigned.

The parents of identical girls in kindergarten wanted them together, as did the mother of identical third-grade boys.

Ask any self-respecting third-grade boy what is the funniest thing in the whole wide world, and he might tell you (in different words, of course) that it is the nether region of the human body.

On cue, a dozen slightly awestruck third-grade boys from East Harlem trotted into the midtown Manhattan hotel room where Mr. Cronin was making his announcement yesterday.

A third-grade boy tells his mother he will take a bazooka to school to protect himself.

But Mr. Sugito's images look as if they were drawn by a third-grade boy.

Before class the other day, third-grade boys were making art on computer screens, while the girls learned multiplication tables with an innovative set of playing cards designed by the principal, Hadi Trilaksono.

Brown Water, Few Bathrooms Brown water dribbles out of drinking fountains at Public School 73 in Brooklyn, reported Rosalind Hampton, the mother of a third-grade boy there.