Numbers to 10 000
Grade 3 brought in the written methods; Grade 4 stretches them. Numbers reach 10 000, decimals arrive and are added in columns like everything else, and multiplication and division get written methods of their own.
What Alberta asks for by the end of Grade 4
The subject: Mathematics
- Add and subtract numbers within 10 000, including decimals, using the standard written methods.
- Multiply and divide three-digit numbers by one-digit numbers using the standard written methods.
- Sort triangles and four-sided shapes using their angles and side lengths.
- Measure and calculate the area of a rectangle.
- Show and read data in different kinds of graph.
The fact sheet is a snapshot. Alberta's Grade 4 overview for parents also mentions relating fractions, decimals and percentages, the order of operations, and classifying angles, so those words are included below too.
The words, first
These are the terms a teacher will use at a parent interview, defined before anything below uses them.
| Word | What it means |
|---|---|
| Place value | What a digit is worth because of where it sits. The 2 in 2 000 is worth a thousand times the 2 in 2. |
| Decimal | A number with a decimal point, for parts of a whole. 0.3 is three tenths; 0.35 is thirty-five hundredths. |
| Tenths, hundredths | The first and second places after the point. Money is the everyday example: $4.35 is 4 dollars, 3 dimes and 5 cents. |
| Line up the points | The rule for adding decimals in columns. 4.6 + 2.75 is written 4.60 + 2.75, so tenths sit under tenths. |
| Standard algorithm | The written method: columns for adding and subtracting, and now written multiplication and division by one digit. |
| Product, quotient, remainder | The answer to a multiplication, the answer to a division, and what is left over when a division does not come out even. |
| Right, acute, obtuse | An angle of exactly 90°, less than 90°, and more than 90° but less than 180°. The corner of a page is a right angle. |
| Equilateral, isosceles, scalene | Triangles with three equal sides, at least two equal sides, and no equal sides. |
| Quadrilateral | Any four-sided shape. Square, rectangle, rhombus, parallelogram and trapezoid are all quadrilaterals, and a square is also a rectangle. |
| Area | The space inside a flat shape, in square units: how many squares would cover it. For a rectangle, length × width. |
| Perimeter | The distance around the outside. Not the same as area, and the two get confused all year. |
| Percent | Out of a hundred. 35% is 35 hundredths, which is why decimals and percentages are taught together. |
6 × 4 = 24 square units
What to do at home
- Use money for decimals — Prices are decimals that children already care about. “Which costs more, $4.5 or $4.45?” is the whole difficulty of comparing decimals in one question.
- Line up the decimal points — When adding two prices on paper, write the zero: $4.50, not $4.5. The zero is what keeps the columns honest.
- Estimate before multiplying — “About how much is 6 boxes at $19?” About 6 × 20 = 120. An estimate is how a child catches their own mistakes.
- Find the angles in a room — Right angles everywhere; an obtuse one in an open door; an acute one in a slice of pizza.
- Measure a floor in tiles — Count the tiles along two sides and multiply. Then count them all, once, to believe it.
- Read a graph in the news — Weather forecasts, sports tables, a flyer. Ask what the graph is trying to show, and whether it shows it.
Sheets you can print for this
- Columns to 10 000 — adding and subtracting
- Decimals in columns — line up the points
- Multiplying by one digit — the written method
- Dividing by one digit — the written method, and remainders
- Name that shape — by its sides and angles
- Area of rectangles — count, then multiply
- Read the graph — how our class gets to school
The expectations above are paraphrased from Alberta Education's New K–6 curriculum fact sheets, which publish a snapshot of each grade rather than the complete program of studies. Alberta's full programs are at alberta.ca/curriculum.