Elementary Math
Overview of New York’s Next Generation Learning Standards for Math (Kindergarten–5th Grade)
The Next Generation Learning Standards (NGLS) for math in New York State are designed to help children build a strong foundation of math skills, develop problem-solving abilities, and apply math to real life. From kindergarten through 5th grade, students move from understanding basic numbers to confidently working with complex concepts — always building step by step.
Here’s an overview of what your child will focus on in each stage:
Kindergarten–2nd Grade: Building Early Number Sense
• Counting and Understanding Numbers: Recognizing numbers, counting to 100, and understanding place value.
• Addition and Subtraction: Learning basic addition and subtraction facts and solving simple word problems.
• Shapes and Measurement: Identifying and describing shapes, comparing lengths, and understanding time and money.
• Foundation of Problem-Solving: Beginning to think about different ways to solve problems using pictures, objects, and simple equations.
3rd–5th Grade: Strengthening Skills and Thinking Deeper
• Multiplication and Division: Mastering multiplication and division facts and applying them in word problems.
• Fractions and Decimals: Understanding parts of a whole, comparing fractions, and introducing decimals (in 4th and 5th grade).
• Advanced Place Value and Operations: Working with larger numbers, adding and subtracting multi-digit numbers, and understanding how place value works.
• Measurement and Data: Solving problems involving measurement, time, area, perimeter, and interpreting graphs.
• Geometry: Understanding more complex shapes, classifying them, and working with angles and symmetry.
• Problem-Solving and Reasoning: Explaining thinking, showing work in multiple ways, and building strategies to approach challenging problems.
What This Means for Your Child
• Each year, your child’s math knowledge grows in layers — starting with simple counting and building up to working with fractions, decimals, and multi-step word problems by the end of 5th grade.
• The focus is not only on getting the right answer but also on understanding why the answer is correct and explaining the thinking behind it.
Middle School Math
Here’s what these standards focus on for each grade level and across middle school:
6th Grade Math Focus: Building Strong Foundations
• Ratios and Proportional Relationships: Understanding and using ratios, rates, and percentages in everyday situations.
• The Number System: Working with fractions, decimals, and negative numbers (integers) to solve problems.
• Expressions and Equations: Learning how to write and solve simple algebraic expressions and equations.
• Geometry: Finding the area, surface area, and volume of shapes.
• Statistics: Beginning to collect, display, and interpret data.
What this looks like at home: You might see your child working on word problems with percentages (like discounts or tax), measuring areas for projects, or making sense of simple graphs.
7th Grade Math Focus: Expanding Understanding
• Ratios and Proportions: Applying proportional reasoning to solve more complex problems (including scale drawings and probability).
• The Number System: Adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing rational numbers (fractions, decimals, and integers).
• Expressions and Equations: Solving multi-step problems using algebraic equations and inequalities.
• Geometry: Working with circles, angles, and applying formulas to find measurements.
• Statistics and Probability: Drawing conclusions from data and understanding chance and likelihood.
What this looks like at home: Your child might be using formulas for circumference and area, solving real-world problems using equations, or comparing data sets using averages and percentages.
8th Grade Math Focus: Preparing for High School Algebra
• Expressions and Equations: Understanding and solving linear equations and systems of equations (two equations at the same time).
• Functions: Learning what functions are and how to use them to describe patterns and relationships.
• The Number System: Working with irrational numbers (numbers that can’t be written as fractions) and square roots.
• Geometry: Understanding the Pythagorean Theorem, transformations (like rotations, reflections, and translations), and using geometry to solve problems.
• Statistics: Interpreting scatter plots and understanding the relationships between two variables.
What this looks like at home: Your child may be graphing lines on a coordinate plane, solving equations that represent real situations, or using geometry to calculate distances or measurements.