Your 6-year-old child is about to start 1st grade. By the time they’ve finished middle school, they will have learned thousands of math skills, ranging from simple counting to functions to the Pythagorean Theorem. And, right from the start, they will move quickly from one math concept to another as they work their way through the elementary school math curriculum.
Are you ready to support and guide them?
We’d love to help you!
So, that’s why we’ve put together this guide with quick links to everything from math curriculum standards to resources like worksheets, gamifying ideas and activities, manipulatives (hands-on experiences that help your child understand how math relates to the real world), and successful math teaching strategies. And of course, we’ve included resources specifically for parents, such as providing math help to your child, blogs on math games and software, and finding the right math tutor.
We have all the details about every US state's curriculum:
1st-grade students start with simple addition and subtraction and quickly move on to skills like understanding place value, measurements, basic word problems, and shape recognition. By 3rd grade, they’re learning about multiplication, division, fractions, more advanced problem-solving. They also explore area and perimeter.
In 5th grade, students are deepening their understanding of numerical expressions,analyzing patterns and relationships, and graphing points on a coordinate plane to help solve real-world problems. And, in 6th grade, the focus shifts to ratios and proportional reasoning, solving linear expressions with one variable, and using statistics to describe and interpret data distributions.
In the links above, you’ll notice we’ve included the math curriculum details for grades 7 & 8 as an added bonus. While these grades fall under middle school, the primary focus here is on 1st through 6th grade.
A first grade class typically consists of children aged 6 and 7. As they move out of kindergarten and into first grade, they are focused on building more foundational skills and solidifying the skills they’ve already learned.
During second grade, students are typically 7 or 8 years old. Second grade math curriculum continues to build on the math skills students learned in first grade.
Third grade math curriculum is typically taught to children aged 8 to 9. Third grade math students are often excited to learn and ready to tackle increasingly complex concepts.
For some schools, fourth grade marks a change from elementary school and into middle school.
Whether this fourth grade year means students are going to a new building or not, they will all be learning the same things in math class.
By the time they reach fifth grade math, students are 10-11 years old, have learned and applied a variety of math concepts, and are now ready to delve into trickier topics like adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing fractions and decimals as well as understanding volume.
For many students, sixth grade is the start of middle school, which brings with it a wide range of challenges and new experiences. The sixth grade math curriculum mirrors this, as it builds on previously learned concepts but also introduces potentially difficult new topics like percentages, statistics, and probability.
The seventh grade math curriculum focuses on some more difficult concepts and asks 12- and 13-year-old students to push themselves more than in previous grades. New topics in the seventh grade math curriculum include ratios and more complex investigations into statistics and probability.
Eighth grade is the final year of middle school and a time when teachers start to lay the foundation for high school. It is important that students become more independent in their learning and problem-solving, and this is reflected in the eighth grade math curriculum, which introduces more complex subjects like functions.
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When it comes to teaching elementary math, having the right resources can make all the difference. Below, you’ll find helpful links to math worksheets, teaching strategies for math, and some ideas on gamifying math in the classroom.
Set first graders up for success with these worksheets that practice addition, place value and telling time.
Effective math instruction begins with thoughtful planning. To help create engaging and effective lessons, here’s a list of interesting ideas on some key strategies you can use to help plan your math lessons. Plus, if you’re looking for creative ways to make math interactive, you’ve come to the right place - we’ll also give you a list of gamification ideas just below.
With so much time spent planning lessons, finding time to also gamify your math lessons isn’t always easy.
To make it easier, we’ve put together some quick links to a few fun ideas to help make your math classes engaging for your students.
Some of you perhaps learned your elementary school math when a computer was not yet in every household and cell phones were still a little strange and new. Some of you may have learned your math a little later when math games started appearing everywhere.
While teaching methods continue to evolve, it always remains true that the right tools can make all the difference! As you know, there’s tons of help online. It’s just a matter of finding the right resources! In the links below, you’ll find carefully curated resources available to support you.
You know what beats worrying about having to re-learn elementary school math? Teaming up with your child to help them conquer the math skills they’re working on - together!
Here are some links to ideas to guide your kids through their elementary math studies.
Sometimes, bringing in a math tutor for additional support makes all the difference. A tutor’s expertise can provide the extra support your child needs to grasp tricky math concepts. Tutors can provide a wide range of approaches to help engage a student and make learning click.
Tutoring isn’t only for students who are struggling - a tutor can also help an advanced math student who wants to learn at a faster pace.
So, here’s a couple of blogs on how to find a math tutor and what rates are typical.
Prodigy Math allows a parent to monitor their child’s progress through a parent portal and a parent dashboard with real-time data and reports. The game itself is an engaging experience for elementary students who solve math problems aligned to state standards in order to earn rewards and progress in the game. It’s also adaptive, which means Prodigy’s algorithms adjust the level of math difficulty based on how your child responds to the questions. It’s both easy and fun to use for students, while also providing a comprehensive math learning experience.
For teachers, Prodigy Math is a well-designed support system with a comprehensive dashboard that tracks both individual student progress and whole class performance. It helps educators easily identify strengths and learning gaps, making it easier to tailor lesson plans accordingly. Plus, with printables like worksheets and gamified activities, the transition from online to classroom learning is that much easier.
Teachers get full access to Prodigy for free! Free accounts are available for parents as well, with the option to purchase a membership that will provide access to a wider range of benefits, so there are plenty of options to choose from.
All parents have to do is go to the Prodigy Parents page and click the Free Account button or the View Memberships button to get started.
Teachers just need to head to the Prodigy Educators page and click on the Educators, get full access for free button.
