YEAR 4 GUIDE · PHASE 2
A parent and teacher guide to Year 4 of the refreshed NZ maths curriculum — what’s taught, how to spot readiness, and how to help at home.
➗Year 4 opens Phase 2 (Years 4–6). The mission of the year: finish the times tables — all of them — and take the first step past whole numbers into decimals. 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 10,000, round to the nearest 10, 100 or 1000, and add and subtract four-digit numbers with mental, place-value and column methods. The landmark goal: memorise every ×÷ fact from the 2s to the 10s. They multiply two- and three-digit numbers by one digit and divide without remainders. Fractions stretch to improper fractions and mixed numbers on a number line, and — the big first — tenths appear as both fractions and decimals, with adding and subtracting to one decimal place. They also scale recipes (doubling and halving) and handle money totals and change in whole dollars.
✅ Signs your child is ready to move on
The 6s, 7s and 9s are the stragglers. A minute of mixed quick-fire most days — and teach the safety nets: 9 × 7 is 10 × 7 minus 7.
A tape measure is a decimal number line: 1.4 m tall, 2.3 m of string. Year 4 decimals are tenths — measuring makes them real.
'The recipe feeds 4, we need 8 — what happens to 250 g?' Scaling recipes is literally in the curriculum this year.
Round each item to the nearest dollar and race the checkout. Rounding to 10, 100 and 1000 is core Year 4 work.
Deal four digit cards each, arrange them into the biggest number, read it aloud. Four-digit place value, disguised as a contest of luck and cunning.
Every Year 4 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 4 mysteries → Or see everything in Phase 2 (Years 4–6).
Every Year 4 mystery practises one skill from this year inside a whodunit maths activity. The first ones are free — no account needed.
Open the Year 4 mysteries →