Classes 3 and 4 are the years of fluency. Children meet multiplication and division, numbers in thousands and lakhs, and longer sums with carrying and borrowing. The aim now is for the basic facts, adding within 20 and the tables to 10, to come without effort, so that attention is free for the method.
The games here give quick practice of those facts and of place value and patterns. A good routine is one fact game, such as Sum Sprint, and one thinking game, such as What Comes Next, each for five minutes.
What to look for at this age
- Tables to 10 in any order, in about three seconds each. Our neighbour site Tables has every table with its patterns.
- Place value to lakhs. The value of each digit in a number such as 3,45,678.
- Choosing the operation. Knowing whether a story sum needs adding, taking away, multiplying or dividing.
- Checking. Asking "does my answer make sense?" before moving on.
Speed and accuracy
Use the relaxed mode first. Only when a child gets nine out of ten right should the 60-second race come in, and even then the child should race their own best score, not a brother or sister. Some children enjoy a clock and some are upset by it. Both can become good at maths.
Other stages
Maths Games