Five maths skills your child will learn in Year 1

Five maths skills your child will learn in Year 1

After Reception, your Year 1 child will be ready for some amazing growth. For many children, Year 1 is the year that they bloom as readers and mathematicians. Get ready to support your child’s mathematical growth by learning about year 1 maths skills. 

In Year 1, you can expect your child to learn how to: 

1. Count reliably to 100

Now that your child is familiar with numbers up to 20 they will be expected to count, read and write numbers to 100. More importantly they will start to count up in twos, fives and tens. They will also be introduced to writing numbers as words up to 20 - at this stage they will start to see patterns in numbers and recognise odd and even numbers. 

At home: Play counting games like snakes and ladders that focus on counting forwards and backwards. Setting the table is a good activity as kids will have to think how many of each piece of cutlery is needed.

2. Begin to measure length, weight and time

In Year 1, kids learn how to measure using rulers and more unusual things like paper clips. After taking measurements, children compare and order objects by length. They will start to understand events in chronological order such as the days of the week and months in a year. 

At home: Introduce your child to a calendar and make note of special dates. Discuss the types of clothes you would wear in different seasons and what special days there are in each season. Bathtime is a good time to show capacity by using different containers to fill and compare. 

3. Recognise different coins and notes

Students will become familiar with the different types of coins and notes including 1p, 2p, 5p and 10p and should be able to find totals up to 10p.

At home: Make them familiar with the types of coins in your purse - sort them out by shape, size and colour. Kids love to play shops where they have to pay for items and work out change (only from 10p.)

4. Tell the time to the hour and the half hour

One of the trickiest concepts for Year one students is learning to tell the time. Using analog clocks is confusing, especially when kids are more used to seeing digital clocks. In Year 1, your child will learn about the big and little hands of a clock and will practice telling time to the hour and half hour. They will also be introduced to the seasons of a year in this topic.

At home: Get hold of an analog clock for your home (either a real one or one made just for learning). Talk with your child about the time and how the hands move around the clock. Remember to just focus on telling time to the hour and half hour to start!

5. Use basic fractions such as ¼ and ½

Year Ones will also get an introduction to fractions as equal shares. They will learn how to divide into equal groups and learn basic fractions like ½ and ¼. Kids usually have a good understanding of fairness, so practising making equal shares should be a relatively easy task for them! As well as fractions your Year one learner will become familiar with ¼ and ½ in regards to position and turning.

At home: Help your child to divide pizzas, pies, and sandwiches into equal shares. As you do, talk about the fractions of the whole that you created. Discuss items that turn - make a treasure hunt where you read instructions about position and directions. 

Found this useful? Check out our year by year maths guides from Reception to Year 4.

About Komodo – Komodo is a fun and effective way to boost primary maths skills. Designed for 4 to 11-year-olds to use in the home, Komodo uses a little and often approach to learning maths (20 minutes, three to five times per week) that fits into the busy routine. Komodo users develop fluency and confidence in maths – without keeping them at the screen for long.

Find out more about Komodo and how it helps thousands of children each year do better at maths – you can even try Komodo for free. 

And now we've got Komodo English too - check it out here.

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