End-of-Year Math Review by Grade Level
A grade-by-grade review of the most important math skills learned this year — with tools to practice each one before summer.
Review Before You Lose It
The last few weeks of school are the perfect time to review the year's most important skills. This isn't about cramming — it's about making sure the big concepts are solid before summer. Here's what matters most at each grade level, with direct links to practice tools.
Kindergarten: Counting & Number Sense
The big skills: count to 100, recognize numbers 0–20, add and subtract within 5, name basic shapes.
Review tools: Counting Game, Ten Frame, Shapes & Colors
1st Grade: Addition & Subtraction Fluency
The big skills: add and subtract within 20, understand place value (tens and ones), tell time to the hour and half hour.
Review tools: Addition & Subtraction, Place Value, Telling Time
2nd Grade: Multi-Digit Addition & Measurement
The big skills: add and subtract within 100, skip count by 2s/5s/10s, measure in inches and centimeters.
Review tools: Number Bonds, Base Ten Blocks, Bar Graph
3rd Grade: Multiplication & Fractions Intro
The big skills: multiply and divide within 100, understand fractions as parts of a whole, tell time to the minute.
Review tools: Multiplication Table, Fraction Visualizer, Mental Math
4th–5th Grade: Fractions, Decimals, & Multi-Step Problems
The big skills: add/subtract/compare fractions, understand decimals, multi-step word problems, area and perimeter.
Review tools: Fraction Wall, Area & Perimeter, Long Division
6th–8th Grade: Pre-Algebra & Data
The big skills: ratios and proportions, order of operations, integers, coordinate plane, basic statistics.
Review tools: Ratio Visualizer, Order of Operations, Coordinate Plane, Integer Number Line
Why This Matters
An end-of-year math review serves two critical purposes: it consolidates the year's learning into long-term memory, and it identifies gaps before summer break, when students are most at risk for skill loss. Research on the "summer slide" shows that students can lose 2–3 months of math skills over summer if they don't practice, and this loss is cumulative — it compounds year over year. A thorough review at the end of the school year establishes a solid baseline that makes summer practice more effective.
Grade-specific reviews are especially important because math is sequential. A shaky foundation in third-grade fractions leads to struggles with fourth-grade fraction operations, which leads to fifth-grade decimal and percent difficulties. Catching gaps now prevents cascading problems later.
Where Kids Get Stuck
The most common issue is students who learned procedures but not concepts. A child might correctly execute long division on a worksheet but not understand what division means. End-of-year reviews that include explanation questions ("Why does this work?" or "Draw a picture of this problem") reveal whether understanding is deep or superficial.
Another challenge is review fatigue. By the end of the school year, children are tired and resistant to more worksheets. Making the review game-based, project-based, or connected to summer activities (measuring for a garden, budgeting for a trip) keeps engagement high.
Parents also face the difficulty of not knowing grade-level standards. What should a second grader know by the end of the year versus a fourth grader? Organizing review materials by grade with clear skill checklists helps parents focus on the right content.
Try This at Home
- Math skills checklist — Use your child's grade-level standards to create a simple checklist. Try one problem from each skill area. Check off what's solid and star what needs review.
- Summer math plan — Based on the review, choose 2–3 skills to practice over summer. 10 minutes a day is enough to prevent the summer slide.
- Real-world math projects — Plan a summer project that uses math: design a garden (area and perimeter), plan a road trip (distance and time), or run a lemonade stand (money and operations).
- Math game kit — Assemble a kit of math card games and dice games for summer. Games provide practice without the worksheet feeling.
For more ideas, see our guide: Signs Your Child Is Struggling With Math.
The most commonly "forgotten" math skill over summer is multi-digit computation — adding and subtracting numbers with regrouping (borrowing and carrying). A quick review in the last week of school can prevent this from fading. Try 5 minutes of Mental Math practice each day.
Last reviewed: May 2026
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