What changed in Ontario math in 2020: a guide for parents

If you went to school before 2020, in Ontario or anywhere else, your child’s math homework may not look like yours did. Some of that is new methods. Some of it is new topics: coding in Grade 1, budgets in Grade 5, infographics in Grade 6.

In September 2020, Ontario replaced its Grades 1 to 8 math curriculum, the first new one in 15 years. This guide explains what changed, what didn’t, and what it means for you at the kitchen table.

The short version

• Coding is taught from Grade 1.
• Money and financial literacy are taught in every grade.
• Memorizing math facts is back, including times tables up to 12 × 12 by Grade 5.
• Data now includes reading and making infographics.
• Social-emotional skills, like coping with stress and sticking with a hard problem, are part of the math curriculum.
• Report cards give one overall math grade instead of a mark for each strand.
• Kids still learn more than one way to solve a problem, and the standard written methods are still taught.

New strands

The 2005 curriculum had five strands, the big sections of the course. The 2020 curriculum has six:

2005 curriculum	2020 curriculum
Number Sense and Numeration	Number
Patterning and Algebra	Algebra (now including coding)
Data Management and Probability	Data (including data literacy and probability)
Geometry and Spatial Sense, and Measurement	Spatial Sense (geometry and measurement together)
(none)	Financial Literacy
(none)	Social-emotional learning skills and the math processes

Most of the math your child learns is still about numbers, shapes and measurement. The names and the grouping changed, and there are two new pieces.

Coding, from Grade 1

Coding is part of the Algebra strand in every grade. It starts small and builds:

• Grade 1: code that runs in order (“sequential events”), like moving a character step by step on a grid.
• Grade 3: code with repeating events (loops).
• Grade 4: nested events (a loop inside a loop).
• Grade 5: conditional statements (“if this, then that”).
• Grade 8: code that analyses data to help make decisions.

In every grade, kids also read and change existing code, then describe how the changes affect what happens. You don’t need to know how to code to help. Ask your child to explain what their code does, step by step. It’s the same skill as explaining a math answer.

Money, in every grade

Financial literacy is now its own strand:

• Grades 1 to 3: Canadian coins and bills, their values, different ways to make the same amount, and making change.
• Grade 4: ways to pay, and the ideas of spending, saving, earning, investing and donating.
• Grade 5: basic budgets, sales tax, unit prices (which size is the better deal), and credit and debt.
• Grade 6: financial goals, and interest rates on accounts and loans.
• Grade 7: exchange rates, longer-term budgets, and how interest affects savings and borrowing.
• Grade 8: a financial plan, simple and compound interest, and comparing credit cards.

This is the easiest strand to help with at home: grocery prices, change at the store, a savings goal for something your child wants.

Math facts are memorized again

The 2020 curriculum asks kids to recall facts, not only work them out:

• Grade 1: addition facts to 10, and the related subtraction facts.
• Grade 2: addition facts to 20.
• Grade 3: multiplication facts for 2, 5 and 10.
• Grade 4: multiplication facts to 10 × 10.
• Grade 5: multiplication facts to 12 × 12, and the related division facts.
• Grade 7: common percents, fractions and decimals that are equal (like 25% = ¼ = 0.25).
• Grade 8: common square numbers and their square roots.

When the curriculum came out, the Education Minister put it this way: “Yes, parents, that means memorizing times tables is back for our kids.” A few minutes of fact practice most days, through games, cards or quick questions in the car, helps more than one long session.

Data and infographics

The Data strand now covers data literacy: collecting data, choosing the right graph, and reading graphs critically. From Grade 4 to Grade 8, students create infographics about a data set. Grade 8 adds scatter plots, and probability is still part of the strand.

At home: when you see a graph in the news or on a cereal box, ask “What is this graph trying to tell us? Is it fair?”

Social-emotional learning in math

The first strand of the 2020 curriculum isn’t about numbers at all. It asks kids to use six social-emotional learning skills while they do math:

1. Identifying and managing emotions
2. Coping with stress
3. Positive motivation and perseverance
4. Healthy relationships (working with others)
5. Self-awareness and a sense of identity, including seeing themselves as capable math learners
6. Critical and creative thinking

The same strand covers the math processes, like problem solving, reasoning, communicating and representing. This is where “explain your thinking” comes from.

At home this looks like calm, not speed. “This is hard right now, and that’s OK. What could you try?” is straight out of the curriculum.

What didn’t change

• The standard written methods are still taught. The column method, carrying and borrowing (now called regrouping), and long multiplication are all in the curriculum. Kids also learn strategies like number lines, arrays and area models, and connect them to the written methods. Our guide to number lines, arrays and area models shows what each looks like.
• EQAO math assessments in Grade 3 and Grade 6 continue. See our guides to Grade 3 EQAO math and Grade 6 EQAO math.
• Three reports a year: a fall progress report and two report cards. Since 2020, math gets one overall grade on the report card. Our guide to reading the math on the fall progress report explains the first one.

What it means for you

1. Practise facts a little, often. It’s now an expectation in every grade from 1 to 5.
2. Let your child teach you the new parts. Coding, infographics and new methods are great “show me” moments.
3. Bring money into everyday life. Prices, change, saving up, and which size is the better deal.
4. Ask for the thinking, not just the answer. “How did you figure that out?” is what the curriculum asks for too.
5. Don’t worry about catching up yourself. You don’t need to learn the new curriculum to help. Questions and patience do most of the work.

For what your child learns this year, strand by strand, with typical homework and a hint for each, open their grade: Grade 1, Grade 2, Grade 3, Grade 4, Grade 5, Grade 6, Grade 7 or Grade 8.

Where Astuzo fits in

Astuzo is built on the 2020 Ontario math curriculum, so when your child gets stuck on an area model or a Grade 5 budget question, Spark, our friendly robot tutor, gives hints the way Ontario classrooms teach it, never just the answer. You get a short email each evening they use it, so you know what they worked on.

Astuzo is in pilot now, with math for Grades 1 to 8, made for Ontario. Join the waitlist to hear when it’s ready, or start with our plain-language guides to the Ontario math curriculum.

Sources: The Ontario Curriculum: Mathematics, Grades 1–8 (2020); Global News, June 2020.