4th Grade Math: Worked Examples for Parents Helping at Home

In 4th grade math, children use place value to work with bigger numbers and build on earlier fraction ideas. For home practice, choose one skill your child is learning in class and ask them to show the reasoning as well as the answer.

This US parent guide uses the Common Core Grade 4 overview as a reference. Major areas include multi-digit operations, fraction equivalence and calculations, and geometric properties. School sequences and state requirements vary. The examples below are supplemental activities, not a complete curriculum, placement test, or claim that Tiger Math covers every standard.

Place value: the same digit can have a different value

Write 3,405 = 3,000 + 400 + 5. Ask why there is no tens term: zero shows there are no tens beyond the thousands and hundreds already counted. Compare 3,405 with 3,450 by looking at the first place where their digits differ.

For rounding 3,405 to the nearest hundred, locate it between 3,400 and 3,500. It is five away from 3,400 and ninety-five away from 3,500, so it rounds to 3,400. A number line gives the rounding rule a visible meaning.

Multiplication: break the number into useful parts

For 23 × 4, calculate 20 × 4 = 80 and 3 × 4 = 12. Combine them to get 92. Draw a rectangle with one side four units and split its other side into twenty and three. Label the two areas eighty and twelve.

For 23 × 14, split fourteen into ten and four: 230 + 92 = 322. Check the size of the answer with 20 × 14 = 280. The exact result should be a little larger. These examples illustrate the place-value strategies described in the Grade 4 base-ten standards.

If 3 × 4 still takes considerable effort, revisit a small group of facts using our times tables practice. Separate recalling the small fact from understanding why twenty-three is split into twenty and three.

Division: explain the remainder in the story

For 95 ÷ 4, forty divided by four is ten. Take another forty to make twenty groups of four, using eighty altogether. Fifteen remain; twelve make three more groups. The result is 23 remainder 3. Check with 4 × 23 + 3 = 95.

Now imagine ninety-five students riding in cars that each hold four students. Twenty-three full cars leave three students without a seat, so you need twenty-four cars. If the story instead asks how many complete packs of four pencils can be made, the answer is twenty-three packs with three pencils left.

Keep the answer tied to the question. “Remainder three” describes the calculation, but it does not always finish the problem.

Equivalent fractions: change the parts, keep the amount

Draw two same-sized rectangles. Shade one half of the first. Divide the second into eight equal pieces and shade four. Both drawings cover the same amount: 1/2 = 4/8. The pieces became smaller while the shaded whole stayed the same.

For 3/8 + 2/8, count three eighths and two eighths to get 5/8. For 7/8 − 3/8, remove three eighths to leave 4/8, equal to one half. The denominator stays eight because you are still counting eighth-sized pieces.

The Grade 4 fraction standards include same-denominator addition and subtraction; adding arbitrary unlike denominators is not a general requirement at this grade. Follow the method your child is using in class rather than rushing ahead to a new algorithm.

Decimals: connect hundredths to something familiar

A dollar gives a familiar US example: seventy-five cents is 75/100 of a dollar, written $0.75. Fifty cents is $0.50. Compare 0.75 and 0.50 as seventy-five hundredths and fifty hundredths.

For 0.6 and 0.45, rewrite six tenths as sixty hundredths: 0.60 > 0.45. Adding a zero at the end of 0.6 does not change its value. A hundred-square grid can show sixty shaded squares compared with forty-five.

Three questions to choose the next activity

1. Calculate 32 × 3. 96: ninety plus six.
2. Find 67 ÷ 5. 13 remainder 2: 5 × 13 + 2 = 67.
3. Find 2/6 + 3/6. 5/6: five sixth-sized parts.

Keep a drawing beside one answer and ask your child to explain it. A research review of manipulatives informs using concrete models alongside symbols, but does not validate this practice check. For recurring confusion, take an example to the teacher and agree on a specific skill to revisit.

Our 3rd grade guide revisits equal groups and early fractions. Tiger Math offers supplemental arithmetic practice for ages 6–12 and a parent report; it does not replace a fourth-grade curriculum. Explore the app or read our guide to adaptive math apps to understand what a practice report can tell you.