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Parent guide

What Maths Should a 7 Year Old Know?

What the Polish curriculum expects of a child in klasa I to III, which skills come in which year, and how to check them without a worksheet.

The Polish podstawa programowa sets its requirements for the end of klasa III, not year by year. Schools break it down roughly like this.

Klasa I, around age seven

  • Counting forwards and backwards, reading and writing numbers to 20, then to 100
  • Adding and taking away inside 20, fluently inside 10
  • Comparing numbers: more, less, the same
  • Naming a square, a rectangle, a triangle and a circle
  • Telling the time on the hour, then the half hour

Klasa II, around age eight

  • Adding and taking away inside 100
  • The times table begins, usually 2, 5 and 10 first
  • Money: zล‚oty and grosze, and giving change
  • Measuring in centimetres and metres; the perimeter of a rectangle
  • The clock to five minutes

Klasa III, around age nine

  • The whole times table, and dividing with it
  • Numbers to 1000
  • Two-step word problems
  • Grams and kilograms, litres, the thermometer

What comes later

Fractions, angles and area belong to klasa IV. A child who is ahead can meet them early โ€” there is no harm in it โ€” but they are not a gap at seven.

How to check without a worksheet

Ask at the shop: what will we pay for these two things, and what change should we get? Ask at the table: there are twelve pierogi and four of us, how many each? A child who can do that in their head has the skill; a child who reaches for paper on "12 รท 4" needs the times table, not more addition.

What the evidence says about drilling

Retrieval practice โ€” being asked and having to recall โ€” beats re-reading or re-copying, both immediately and a week later. Timing the retrieval adds nothing and, at this age, adds anxiety. So ask often, keep it short, and leave the stopwatch out of it.

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