Explaining Math Basics for Your Elementary School Kids + 8 Entertaining Worksheets to Keep Them Engaged

Numbers are everywhere, and the basic math skills a child learns in elementary school will serve them for the rest of their life.

In this article, we’ll cover the basics your elementary school kid needs to know — and how to teach them math effectively!

What math do children learn at elementary school?

During their time at elementary school, kids are expected to get their heads around a lot of math basics.

They move from identifying numbers 1 through 20 and recognizing basic shapes in kindergarten, to adding fractions and finding the volume of three-dimensional shapes by the end of fifth grade.

That’s quite the leap!

By the time they graduate from elementary school, your kids should have mastered basic arithmetic (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of two-digit numbers) and maybe even have been introduced to algebra.

What are the elementary level math basics?

Math basics provide the foundations upon which more complex math concepts are built. These math building blocks are usually covered in the first few years of elementary school and include:

• Adding and subtracting single-digit numbers
• Understanding units, then adding and subtracting double-digit numbers
• Number sequencing
• Understanding data presented in basic graphs and charts
• Telling the time
• Recognizing and manipulating a variety of two-dimensional shapes.

How to teach math effectively

Math can sometimes feel a little dry, especially if it’s not one of your favorites. But there are lots of ways you can make math more relevant and entertaining for your students.

#1: Make it visual and tactile

When kids can literally get their hands on a math problem, they tend to pick up the concepts much more easily, so try using objects to teach a new idea.

There are plenty of physical tools designed to teach math basics — Cuisenaire rods and snap blocks are a couple of popular examples.

But you can also use objects you already have at home. Lego blocks come in handy for lots of different math problems including adding, subtracting, and determining area. Pasta shapes, buttons, and paperclips are all useful too!

#2: Incorporate math into other areas of learning

Math isn’t just for math class. Revisiting math basics while studying other subjects will help kids see how math is connected to the world around them, and just how useful it really is.

English, art, science, music, cooking, and even phys ed — all of these subjects can involve shapes and numbers, and are great ways to get your child engaged with mathematics.

#3: Choose meaningful tasks

Children don’t always see the value in solving a math problem. But give it a real-world context and you’re much more likely to spark their interest and imagination.

For example, tasks like planning a party, working out points for a soccer league, or just talking about the weather can all involve essential math concepts. The more you can make math relevant to the child’s life, the more they’ll enjoy it.

#4: Ensure they understand the why

Students need to be able to explain their reasoning when solving math problems.

They might be able to answer a question mechanically, but it’s only when they understand why they’re doing something that they’ve truly grasped the concept.

So give them time to talk over their reasoning with you and other students. Or get creative and ask them to show their understanding by drawing a representation of the question and their answer.

By doing this, you’ll get to see the extent to which they’ve grasped the basics, which makes future lesson-planning easier.

#5: Revisit math concepts regularly

How do you make math concepts stick?

Spiralling is a curriculum approach that has kids spiral back to a concept year after year, further cementing it in their minds.

Practice makes perfect, so hone their application and understanding of concepts by revisiting the math basics regularly, using high-quality math worksheets.

8 entertaining worksheets to help teach math effectively

The right worksheets make teaching math basics so much easier. Add these essential math worksheet bundles to your tool kit right away!

Addition and subtraction (up to 20)

Get your kids practicing addition and subtraction with this excellent set of worksheets. Engaging illustrations and a variety of tasks (involving numbers up to 20) help to embed the relationship between different numbers.

Counting sequence

This set of worksheets will help your students master number sequences up to 120. Your kids can enjoy coloring, cutting and pasting, and lots of practice writing numbers.

Shapes and their attributes

Shape recognition is another of the math basics you’ll teach your students early in their elementary school journey. These worksheets cover two-dimensional shapes and help kids with recognizing, arranging, and dividing them.

Telling the time

Covering both analog and digital formats, these worksheets help little ones learn how to tell time. Time problems let children engage with real-life numerical situations.

Properties of operation in addition and subtraction

Get your kids to play around with math equations. These worksheets will show them how every addition also involves a subtraction. They’ll find missing numbers and rework equations to develop an understanding of how numbers relate to one another.

Adding and subtracting (up to 100)

Ready for two-digit addition and subtraction? These worksheets will help your kids to add and subtract numbers up to 100. Students will explore units and place value, before testing their knowledge on two-digit addition tasks.

Working with data

This worksheet bundle helps students to organize, represent, and interpret data on everything from toy robots to cookies! They’ll get introduced to bar graphs, line graphs, and pie charts, and see for themselves how to draw conclusions based on data. 

Addition and subtraction problems

Take addition and subtraction skills to the next level! Full of written math problems, these worksheets allow students to tackle real-world math situations — like sharing pizza at a birthday party — and demonstrate just how much they’ve learned.

Math worksheets for better teaching, and much much more!

Don’t stress if your child is falling a little behind with mathematics. Remember: children develop at different rates, it’s how you support them through the basics that really makes a difference.

Be sure to check out our worksheet library for plenty more worksheets for math class and beyond, and keep doing what you’re doing!