YEAR 1 GUIDE · PHASE 1
A parent and teacher guide to Year 1 of the refreshed NZ maths curriculum — what’s taught, how to spot readiness, and how to help at home.
🔟Year 1 is a child's first full year at school, in the heart of Phase 1. The big shift: numbers get bigger (to 100), and children start seeing them as made of tens and ones — the first step into place value, the idea the whole number system runs on. Remember the golden rule of the refreshed curriculum: it's progression-based — children move on when they're ready, not on a birthday. Treat year levels as a guide only.
Children work with whole numbers to 100, learning that 47 is 4 tens and 7 ones. They count in 2s and 10s, spot odd and even numbers, and memorise the addition and subtraction facts to 10 — plus doubles and halves to 10. They add and subtract to 20, meet the equals sign properly (2 + 5 = 3 + ⬚), and get their first taste of multiplication (equal groups) and division (fair sharing). Fractions begin too: halves and quarters by sharing fairly. And they learn to recognise New Zealand's coins and notes.
✅ Signs your child is ready to move on
Bundle things into tens — pegs, shells, pasta. 'Three bags of ten and four more… 34!' Seeing tens-and-ones beats hearing about it.
Socks in pairs, toes in the bath, $10 notes in a pretend shop. Skip-counting now becomes times tables next year.
Double 3? Double 5? Ask at dinner, in the car, brushing teeth. Doubles and near-doubles are how children derive harder facts later.
'Cut the sandwich in half. Share 8 grapes between 4 people.' Fair shares are the true start of fractions and division.
Get out the coins: 'Which is worth more, 50c or $1? How many 10c coins make 50c?' Year 1 is when NZ money officially enters the curriculum.
Every Year 1 mystery on Kiwi123 practises one focus skill from this year, inside a whodunit — so the maths practice feels like detective work, not drill. Browse the Year 1 mysteries → Or see everything in Phase 1 (Years 0–3).
Every Year 1 mystery practises one skill from this year inside a whodunit maths activity. The first ones are free — no account needed.
Open the Year 1 mysteries →