A brief summary of some of the most important maths concepts to be taught in Year 4 1. Vocabulary and relationships Children should know and use the following vocabulary:  unit, standard unit, metric unit, imperial unit kilometre, metre, centimetre, millimetre, kilogram, gram, litre, millimetre mile, pint long, short, tall, high, low, wide, narrow, deep, shallow, thick, thin far, near, close, distance, perimeter, circumference big, bigger, small, smaller, balances heavy, light, weighs full, empty, holds longer, longest etc Children should be developing a good working knowledge of units in common use, both metric and imperial. They should know the following abbreviations: mm (millimetre),  cm (centimetre),  m (metre),  km (kilometre) g (gram),  kg (kilogram),  ml (millilitre),  l (litre) cm2 (square centimetre), m2 (square metre) They should know the following relationships between metric units: 1 kilometre      = 1 000 metres 1 metre    = 100 centimetres or 1 000 millimetres 1 centimetre = 10 millimetres 1 kilogram     = 1 000 grams 1 litre        = 1 000 millilitres They should also know common imperial units: The mile is more than one kilometre, but less than two kilometres. The pint is roughly half a litre. They should know the equivalent of one half, one quarter, three quarters and one tenth of 1km,  1m,  1 kg,  1 litre respectively in smaller units. eg. know that  3/4 of a litre is 750 millilitres. They should begin to write larger units in terms of smaller units. eg. 7 km is 7 000 m 2.5 m is 250 cm 6 cm is 60 mm. and vice versa. 2. Practical measuring When children measure something they should think about the units they are going to use and what a sensible approximation might be. This module deals with making sensible decisions about what units, as well as giving some ideas for mini investigations using weight and capacity. A selection of jam jars and containers should be available so that children can discover which holds the most, what a litre of water looks like etc. It is also a good idea to make a collection of containers and labels - can the children match the label to the container? Cards could be made with popular measurements such as a litre,  330 ml, 250 grams etc. When estimating distance we are still in a state of confusion, as children are taught the metric units of millimetres, centimetres, metres and kilometres, but our standard measure for longer distances is still the mile. Whenever possible metric units should be used -  they are far easier to use than Imperial! Children should be able to choose a suitable measuring instrument for a given measuring task. For example, they should see that a meter stick, long measuring tape or trundle wheel would be a much better instrument for measuring the length of a classroom than a 30cm ruler. It is better to find the mass of their own bodies in kilograms rather than in grams. Children should also be able to read a scale to the nearest division. This is a difficult task and much practice will be required to master this. (Great patience will often be needed!) The problem is that larger units are often divided into different sub-units. For example, a measuring cylinder with the units marked in 100ml steps (0, 100, 200, 300ml etc) may have sub divisions of 10ml or 20ml or 50ml and children must first work out how big each step is before trying to read the volume of a sample of water etc. Rather than use the worksheets in this module in isolation, they should be used in conjunction with practical work so that children may see how the diagrams relate to real equipment. Children should be able to record an estimate and then record the actual reading in a suitable form (e.g. a table). They should be able to record in single or mixed units (e.g. know that 5 kilograms and 354 grams is 5 354 grams). Lastly, they should be able to round units to the nearest ten or a hundred units (e.g. 123 cm is 120 cm to the nearest ten cm and 7 358g is 7 400g to the nearest 100g). Children often get muddled between working out the area and the perimeter of a shape and it needs to be stressed that perimeter is a measure of length whilst the area is the amount of space inside a shape. A long perimeter does not necessarily mean a large area. When working out the perimeter of a rectangle they should notice that opposite sides are equal and that it is not necessary to measure all four sides. However to work out the perimeter they need to double the length and the breadth, and this is where the confusion with finding area often starts. 3. Area and perimeter A range of terms need to be understood, including: Perimeter, length, distance, area, surface 2D, edge and children will be introduced to the square cm (cm2) sign. It is a good idea to stress the importance of writing down what the unit of measurement is eg cm, m, cm2  m2 etc and not just to give a numerical answer. A variety of shapes can be used when finding the area, ranging from squares and rectangles to 'pond' shapes or other random shapes where the best way to find the area is to put a transparent grid over it and count squares. After a lot of work finding area by counting squares, children can be shown that multiplying the length by the breadth will give the area - think of it as three rows of four squares etc. Go to Year 4 Measuring Concepts