Ontario math help for parents
The Ontario math curriculum, Grades 3–6, in plain language
What your child is learning in math this year, what their homework will look like, and how you can help, without needing to remember how you learned it.
Choose a grade
Grade 3 math
Grade 3 is when math starts to feel big. Numbers grow to 1000, multiplication and division arrive, and fractions show up through fair sharing. Your child also measures area, tells time on a clock, writes simple code and makes change with money.
46 specific expectations across five strands.
Read the Grade 3 guide →Grade 4 math
Grade 4 stretches numbers to 10 000 and brings in decimals (tenths). Your child is expected to know multiplication facts up to 10 × 10, to multiply and divide bigger numbers by one digit, and to solve simple equations. Geometry adds coordinates, angles and the area formula for rectangles.
48 specific expectations across five strands.
Read the Grade 4 guide →Grade 5 math
Grade 5 is a fractions, decimals and percents year. Numbers go up to 100 000, decimals to hundredths, and kids see how 3/4, 0.75 and 75% are the same amount. Multiplication moves to two digits by two digits, and algebra adds expressions with letters.
51 specific expectations across five strands.
Read the Grade 5 guide →Grade 6 math
Grade 6 is the last year of the junior grades and a big step toward middle school. Numbers reach one million, negative numbers (integers) appear, and fractions include unlike denominators. Algebra is more formal, geometry adds all four quadrants of the grid, and measurement includes surface area.
51 specific expectations across five strands.
Read the Grade 6 guide →About the Ontario math curriculum
Elementary math in Ontario follows The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 1–8: Mathematics, 2020, published by the Ontario Ministry of Education. This curriculum replaced the 2005 version and has been taught in Ontario schools since September 2020.
For each grade, it sets out overall expectations (the big goals) and specific expectations (the detailed skills). They’re coded by strand, so B2.2 is the second specific expectation under the second overall expectation in the Number strand. You may see these codes on worksheets or in report card comments.
What might be new to you
- Coding is part of the Algebra strand from Grade 1.
- Financial literacy is its own strand, from making change up to budgets, interest and taxes.
- Social-emotional learning (strand A) is part of math: managing frustration, persevering, and thinking about how you solve problems.
- More than one method. Kids learn several strategies (arrays, number lines, the area model) before or alongside the written algorithm.
The official curriculum is on the Ministry’s Curriculum and Resources site. Our guides quote the official expectation codes and wording, and add plain-language explanations, homework examples and tips of our own.
The five math strands
B. Number
Whole numbers, fractions, decimals and percents, and the four operations.
C. Algebra
Patterns, equations and inequalities, coding, and math modelling.
D. Data
Collecting, graphing and analysing data, and probability.
E. Spatial Sense
Geometry, location and movement, and measurement.
F. Financial Literacy
Money, and later budgeting, saving and consumer choices.
A. Social-emotional learning skills and the mathematical processes
How kids approach math. It runs through all the other strands.
EQAO in Grades 3 and 6
Ontario students write provincial assessments in reading, writing and math in Grade 3 and Grade 6, run by EQAO (the Education Quality and Accountability Office). Our parent guides explain what they are and how to support practice at home.