Year 4 maths: what your child learns
As with reading and writing, by Year 4 most children have a good grasp of the basic maths skills and their mental maths recall is becoming more automatic. It’s important by now that the children have a good knowledge of their times tables up to ten.
The children will be starting to develop their own ideas of how to solve maths problems, and how to check that their calculations are correct.
Calculators may be introduced in this year, and your teacher will show the children how to use them correctly. Maths is still taught daily through a mix of oral, practical and written work, and the children are given plenty of opportunities to see how maths links to other areas of the curriculum, and real-life situations.
Start the Year 4 Learning Programme!
- Weekly maths & English worksheets
- Follows the National Curriculum
- Keeps your child's learning on track
Year 4 maths – what your child will learn:
Number and place value
- Counting in steps of 6, 7, 9, 25 and 1000
- Recognising place value of each digit in a four-digit number
- Counting backwards through zero to include negative numbers
- Rounding any number to the nearest 10, 100 or 1000
Calculating
- Adding and subtracting with numbers up to four digits using column addition and subtraction
- Knowing multiplication facts for all times tables up to 12 x 12
- Multiplying three-digit numbers by one-digit numbers
Fractions and decimals
- Finding fractions of quantities (for example: 2/6 of 48)
- Understanding equivalence between fractions and decimals
- Dividing one-digit and two-digit numbers by 10 and 100
- Rounding decimals with one decimal place to the nearest whole number
Measuring
- Converting between units of measurement
- Working out the perimeter and area of shapes
- Calculating with amounts of money
- Telling and writing the time using the 12-hour and 24-hour clock
- Solving problems involving converting between units of time
Geometry
- Classifying different types of triangles and quadrilaterals
- Recognising acute and obtuse angles
- Identifying lines of symmetry in 2D shapes
- Plotting coordinates in the first quadrant
- Translating shapes up/down and left/right
Statistics
- Interpreting and presenting data in bar charts and line graphs
- Solving comparison, sum and difference problems using information presented in bar charts, pictograms and tables
Try this at home
- Keep on with the times tables – automatic recall really does help at school and with homework. Practise in the car or on the way to school, set your child a challenge, play times tables games and, if necessary, offer a small reward as motivation
- If your child has weekly pocket money, encourage them to save and work out how much they will have after two, three or four weeks
- Go on a walk and give your child a compass so they can keep track of your direction
Fractions, decimals, basic geometry... maths becomes more challenging in Year 4. Help your child build on what they're learning at school and check that they understand the foundations of the new things they're learning with Year 4 maths worksheets (you can also search for fractions worksheets and decimals worksheets specifically or try the Y4 mental maths mini-test).
Check your Y4 child's progress in maths with our free Y4 maths Progress checks, three mini-tests for the autumn, spring and summer terms.
Explore the Year 4 English and Maths Learning Journey programmes
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