When should column methods start?

Once a child can say what each digit in a three-digit number is worth. A child who lines numbers up by their right-hand edge without knowing why makes errors that no amount of practice fixes; the place value page is the fix.

Should a grade 2 child know the times tables?

Not yet. Grade 2 builds the idea of equal groups and skip counting; the facts themselves are a grade 3 goal.

Ages 7-8

Grade 2 math

Grade 2 is where the written methods start. Column addition with carrying and column subtraction with exchanging both rest on place value to 1,000.

What grade 2 usually covers

An ordinary elementary scope and sequence, the one the sets here follow. Schools differ by a few months either way.

Facts to 20 by heart

All the addition and subtraction facts within 20, quickly and without counting. Everything written this year leans on them.

Hundreds, tens and ones

Numbers to 1,000 read, written, compared and taken apart: 347 is 300 + 40 + 7. Counting in fives, tens and hundreds.

Column addition and subtraction

Within 100 fluently, within 1,000 with a written method: carrying a ten, and exchanging a ten or a hundred when the top digit is too small.

Equal groups

Arrays and skip counting by 2s, 5s and 10s: the start of multiplication, before the times tables are learned in grade 3.

Money, time, measuring and data

Dollars and cents, the clock to five minutes, lengths in centimetres and metres, and simple bar charts and picture graphs.

Practice for grade 2

The set below is on the grades 1–2 band. Adding and subtracting are the skills to drill this year; switch the set to multiplying once arrays and skip counting make sense.

Work it out.

0 right

Ten questions at a time, marked as you go. Pick a skill above and start; nothing to sign up for, and the set works offline once the page has loaded.

Pages for this grade

Each has the method written out, worked examples, the facts worth knowing and ten practice questions with answers.

Grades K–2Place value300 + 40 + 7Ones, tens, hundreds and what each digit is worth. Grades K–3Addition158 + 67Facts to 20, making ten, and column addition with carrying. Grades 1–3Subtraction400 − 163Fact families, counting up, and exchanging across zeros. Grades 2–4Multiplication34 × 6Equal groups, arrays, and written multiplication.

Common questions

When should column methods start?: Once a child can say what each digit in a three-digit number is worth. A child who lines numbers up by their right-hand edge without knowing why makes errors that no amount of practice fixes; the place value page is the fix.
Should a grade 2 child know the times tables?: Not yet. Grade 2 builds the idea of equal groups and skip counting; the facts themselves are a grade 3 goal.

Other grades

Ages 5-6Kindergartencounting, numbers to 20, adding and taking away within 10. Ages 6-7Grade 1addition and subtraction within 20, tens and ones, comparing. Ages 8-9Grade 3multiplication and division facts, written adding and subtracting to 1,000, fractions as numbers. Ages 9-10Grade 4place value to a million, multi-digit multiplication, division with remainders. Ages 10-11Grade 5decimals, fractions with different denominators, multiplication and division.