Early Math Checklist, Kindergarten to Grade 5

Strong math skills grow from a deep feel for numbers, built through counting, comparing, and seeing how quantities break apart and come together. This checklist shows typical skills for each grade from kindergarten through grade 5, so you can celebrate progress and notice where your child may need more practice. Check what you see during homework, games and everyday moments like cooking or shopping.

Kindergarten, end of year

• Counts out loud to 100 by ones and by tens
• Counts a group of up to 20 objects, touching each one once, and knows the last number tells how many
• Recognizes small groups of up to 5 objects or dots without counting, like the dots on a die
• Reads and writes numbers from 0 to 20
• Tells which of two groups or numbers is more, less or the same
• Adds and subtracts within 10 using fingers, objects or drawings to act out a story
• Shows the parts that make 10, such as 7 and 3 or 6 and 4
• Names basic shapes like circles, squares, triangles and rectangles in the world around them

Try at home: Play a simple board game with a die, and have your child say the number of dots at a glance before moving their piece.

Grade 1, end of year

• Adds and subtracts within 20, using strategies like making 10 or counting on
• Knows addition and subtraction facts within 10 quickly and without counting on fingers
• Counts, reads and writes numbers to 120, starting from any number
• Explains that the 4 in 47 means 4 tens and the 7 means 7 ones
• Adds a two-digit number and a one-digit number, or a multiple of 10, such as 34 plus 20
• Solves simple word problems and explains which operation they used and why
• Tells time to the hour and half hour on a clock with hands
• Compares the lengths of objects and measures them using same-size units like paper clips

Try at home: Use a deck of cards to play make 10: lay out cards face up and take turns finding pairs that add up to 10.

Grade 2, end of year

• Knows all addition and subtraction facts within 20 from memory
• Adds and subtracts two-digit numbers within 100, and explains the strategy used
• Explains place value in three-digit numbers, such as 352 being 3 hundreds, 5 tens and 2 ones
• Skip-counts by 2s, 5s, 10s and 100s
• Solves two-step word problems, such as buying two items and finding the change
• Counts coins and bills to find a total amount of money
• Tells time to the nearest five minutes
• Measures length in inches, feet, centimeters or meters using a ruler

Try at home: Let your child pay with coins for a small purchase or count the change in a jar, grouping coins into dollars as they go.

Grade 3, end of year

• Explains multiplication as equal groups, such as 4 times 3 meaning 4 groups of 3
• Knows multiplication and division facts within 100 quickly and accurately
• Adds and subtracts within 1,000 with regrouping
• Rounds numbers to the nearest 10 or 100 to estimate an answer
• Understands fractions as equal parts of a whole and places simple fractions like 1/2 and 3/4 on a number line
• Compares fractions with the same numerator or denominator and explains which is larger
• Finds the area of a rectangle by counting squares or multiplying length by width
• Solves two-step word problems using all four operations and checks if the answer is reasonable

Try at home: Practice a few multiplication facts while waiting in line or riding in the car, and ask how they could figure out a fact they do not remember yet, such as using 5 times 6 to find 6 times 6.

Grade 4, end of year

• Reads, writes and compares numbers to 1,000,000 and rounds to any place
• Adds and subtracts multi-digit numbers accurately using the standard method
• Multiplies a four-digit number by a one-digit number and two two-digit numbers, explaining the steps
• Divides numbers up to four digits by a one-digit number, including problems with remainders
• Recognizes equivalent fractions, such as 2/4 and 1/2, and compares fractions with different denominators
• Adds and subtracts fractions with the same denominator, including mixed numbers
• Writes tenths and hundredths as decimals, such as 0.3 and 0.45, and compares them
• Measures and draws angles with a protractor and finds the perimeter and area of rectangles

Try at home: Cook together and ask your child to double or halve a recipe, working out the new fraction amounts for each ingredient.

Grade 5, end of year

• Multiplies multi-digit whole numbers fluently using the standard method
• Divides with two-digit divisors, such as 756 divided by 18, and checks the answer
• Reads, writes, compares and rounds decimals to the thousandths place
• Adds, subtracts, multiplies and divides decimals to the hundredths
• Adds and subtracts fractions with unlike denominators, such as 2/3 plus 1/4
• Multiplies fractions and divides unit fractions by whole numbers, explaining what the answer means
• Finds the volume of a rectangular box by multiplying length, width and height
• Solves multi-step word problems, writes an expression to match, and explains the reasoning

Try at home: Compare unit prices at the store together, figuring out which size of the same item is the better deal per ounce or per item.

Want more? See courses for the early years and Caveat Homeschool for kindergarten to grade 5.

The Caveat Family Guide to College is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Each college decides admission, aid and how credit counts, and requirements change; check each college's own pages. Examples are examples, not promises. Caveat Academic Services is an independent college preparation company. Students do all of their own work.