Grade 4 · Math Mountain

Grade 4 math practice, ten minutes at a time

Grade 4 is where arithmetic stops being about the answer: multiplication facts have to be fluent, remainders have to be interpreted, and fractions arrive as quantities rather than shaded shapes. Daily Academy tracks each of those separately, because a grade 4 fraction gap is the single best predictor of trouble in secondary math.

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What is a grade 4 child expected to do in math?

Canadian provinces write their curricula separately and word them differently, but the grade 4 expectations below are common across all of them. Daily Academy is skills-based rather than built to any one province’s document — see how it maps to your province.

Recall multiplication facts to 10 × 10 and use them in multi-digit work
Divide with remainders, and decide what the remainder means in context
Recognise equivalent fractions, and compare fractions with unlike denominators
Read, compare and add decimals to hundredths, most often as money
Find the area and perimeter of rectangles, and know why they differ
Convert between metric units, and choose a sensible one
Solve multi-step problems and explain which operation each step needed

Where grade 4 children usually get stuck

Fractions handled as pictures rather than as amounts

Shading three of four boxes is not comparing. A child who cannot say whether 3/4 or 2/3 is larger, and why, has a gap that ratio, percent and algebra will all charge interest on.

The remainder ignored, or always rounded the same way

27 children in vans of 6 needs five vans; 250 rolls in boxes of 12 fills twenty. Same division, opposite handling. Children who learned “r3” as notation rather than as a leftover apply one rule to both.

Multi-step problems abandoned after step one

The first number a grade 4 problem produces is usually a real, plausible-looking answer. Stopping there is the most common lost mark in the year, and it is a reading habit rather than an arithmetic one.

What the questions actually look like

Straight from the library, at the difficulty they are served at. Every question carries an explanation that appears after answering, whether the answer was right or wrong.

Counting & Number Recognition
What number comes just before 10?
Why: 9 comes just before 10. Before means one less, not one more.
Number Sense
There are 3 cats and 6 dogs.
Are there more cats or more dogs?
Why: There are more dogs. 6 is more than 3.
Addition
Which one makes 5?
Why: 4 + 1 = 5. The others make 2, 4 and 6.
Subtraction
6 − 3 = ?
Why: 6 − 3 = 3. Counting backwards is one way; knowing that 3 and 3 make 6 is a faster one.

The 32 math skills tracked separately

Mastery is estimated per skill, never per subject, so strength in one can never average away a gap in another. Each page below carries a question you can ask tonight to check it yourself.

Counting & Number RecognitionCounting objects one by one, recognising written numerals and knowing which is more.Number Sense“What does the 4 in 438 actually mean?”Addition“What’s 8 + 6?” — listen for a retrieved answer, not a count.Subtraction“What’s 42 − 17?” Then: “what did you borrow, and what was it worth?”Multiplication“Draw me six sevens.” An array or six groups, not a recited chant.Division“Share 12 among 3” and “how many 3s fit into 12?” Both should be easy.Fractions“Which is bigger, 3/8 or 5/8 — and how do you know?”DecimalsTenths and hundredths, and how they line up with fractions and money.PercentagesPercent as a fraction of a hundred — discounts, interest and change over time.IntegersNegative numbers, and what it means to add or subtract below zero.Exponents & RootsPowers, square roots and the laws that let them be combined.Mental Math“What’s 39 + 24 — without writing it down?” Ask what they did.Word ProblemsRead a problem aloud, then: “what is it asking you to find?” — before any calculating.Measurement“Would you measure this room in centimetres or metres? Why?”Time & Money“It’s 2:40. What time is it in 35 minutes?”Financial LiteracyBudgets, interest, credit and the arithmetic behind everyday money decisions.Ratios & RatesComparing quantities, scaling recipes and unit rates like price per gram.Pre-Algebra PatternsNumber rules, missing values and treating a blank box as an unknown.Expressions & EquationsWriting and solving equations, and keeping both sides balanced.Linear RelationsSlope, intercepts and reading a straight-line relationship four ways.PolynomialsExpanding, factoring and working with expressions of several terms.QuadraticsParabolas, factoring, the quadratic formula and what a root means.FunctionsDomain, range, notation and transformations of a function's graph.Calculus FoundationsLimits, average versus instantaneous rate of change, and the derivative.Shapes & SolidsNaming shapes by their properties, and what makes a square not just a rectangle.Area, Perimeter & VolumeMeasuring around, across and inside — and why the formulas work.Transformations & SymmetrySlides, flips, turns and scaling, and what stays the same through each.Coordinate GeometryPlotting points, distance and midpoint, and shapes described by coordinates.TrigonometrySine, cosine and tangent — angles and lengths that determine each other.Graphs & DataReading and building pictographs, bar graphs and line graphs without being misled.StatisticsMean, median, spread and sampling — and when an average hides more than it shows.ProbabilityLikelihood, independent events and why a run of heads changes nothing.

Common questions

What math should a grade 4 student know in Canada?

By the end of grade 4, most Canadian curricula expect fluent multiplication facts to 10 × 10, division with remainders, equivalent fractions and comparison of fractions, decimals to hundredths, area and perimeter of rectangles, metric unit conversion, and multi-step problems solved with an explanation of each step.

Why do fractions matter so much in grade 4?

Because almost everything after them is built on proportional reasoning — ratio, percent, rates, slope and algebraic fractions all assume it. Research on mathematics attainment repeatedly finds fraction knowledge at this age to be among the strongest predictors of later secondary results, ahead of whole-number arithmetic.

My grade 4 child knows their times tables but still loses marks. Why?

Usually because the questions have two steps and the first step produces a believable number. Check by asking what the question was actually asking for before any calculating — if that is where it breaks down, more times-table drilling will not help.

Keep going

Grade 2 math practice, ten minutes at a timeWhat grade 2 math covers in Canada, where children usually get stuck, and 10 minutes a day of adaptive practice in addition, subtraction, fractions, time and money.See what the parent dashboard showsEvery screenshot is the real product, and the sample dashboard opens without an account.

Start grade 4 math tonight

Twenty minutes, five stops, and every question pitched at your child rather than at their year group. The daily mission is free and stays free.

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