Ten maths skills your child will learn in Year 4
In Year 4 maths, children begin to explore more complex maths concepts. Don’t get overwhelmed! The best way to support your child is to keep your attitude about maths positive as you tackle year 4 maths together. Get started by learning more about what your child will be working on.
1. Count backwards through 0 to include negative numbers
By now your little one should be confident with counting and this will be extending to counting backwards with an introduction to negative numbers. This will mostly be taught using a number line where children will have to place different numbers in the correct position.
2. Know all the tables to 12 x 12
In Year 4 students will be expected to know all of their times tables and should be able to recall them quickly.
3. Short multiplication
In Key Stage 2 one of the new multiplication methods taught is known as the grid method. Children will also be using the standard short multiplication method. In Year 4 they need to multiply two-digit and three-digit numbers by a one-digit number.
4. Dividing by 10 and 100
It is important that children understand that on the right of each whole number is an invisible decimal point, and that when you divide by 10 a number slides one place to the right, so 34 becomes 3.4 and 570 becomes 57. When a number is divided by 100, it has to slide two places to the right, so 5910 becomes 59.1, 300 becomes 3, 6 becomes 0.06.
5. Know Roman numerals to 100
Children will learn to read Roman numerals from 1 to 100 (I to C) and know that, over time, the numeral system changed to include the concept of 0 and place value.
6. Area and perimeter
In Year 4, kids learn about the concepts of area and perimeter. They use their knowledge of multiplication to solve area problems by calculating length x width. Kids will also use addition to figure out the perimeter of different shapes.
7. Symmetry
In Year 4, children are asked to identify lines of symmetry in 2D shapes presented in different orientations. They will need to become aware that shapes have more than one line of symmetry. They may be asked to look at these regular shapes and think about how many lines of symmetry they can find.
8. Acute and obtuse angles
In Year 4, children will learn about acute and obtuse angles and their properties. They will also need to compare angles.
9. Plot coordinates
In primary school children are taught Cartesian coordinates, which they are introduced to in Year 4. Points are marked by how far along they are on the x axis (the horizontal axis) and how far up they are on the y axis (the vertical axis).
10. Converting between metric units
Children will be familiar with different types of metric units including km, m, cm, mm, kg and grams. They will now need to know how to convert between them, eg; how many grams are in 1 kg?
Found this useful? Check out our year by year maths guides from Reception to Year 4.
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