Math facts by grade: the cheat sheet (K to 3rd and up)

By the Common Core's grade standards, kindergarten adds and subtracts within 5 fluently, first grade within 10, second grade knows all sums of two one-digit numbers from memory, and third grade knows all products of two one-digit numbers. A fact counts as automatic at about two seconds. Learn facts in a strategy order, untimed first.

This sheet puts those targets beside the exact order, speed bars and pass rules Peabody (peabody.kids) uses. Peabody is a free AI-driven adaptive learning platform for kids, free through the end of 2026. AI writes the stories; code decides the rest, and every number below is a constant in that code.

The facts by grade

The standards' wording is at thecorestandards.org (one page per grade). The Peabody columns are what the practice brain does on day one: a grade sets only the first rung, and the facts "treated as known" make a new child's first round mostly wins rather than starting them on 0 + 1. From there the child's own answers decide.

The order facts are taught in

Facts are not learned as a list from 1 + 1 to 10 + 10. Each group below leans on a strategy the group before it built, which is the order Peabody's code teaches them in.

The full times-table order with the count of new facts per table is in the multiplication chart guide.

How fast is fast

The research report behind this sheet is plain that the two-second figure is a convention with thin primary backing, not a measured boundary. It is still the number most schools use, which is why Peabody's top belt sits there. Speed is also the last thing to train: Pelánek (2016, Computers & Education) notes that scoring by response time is only fair when the screen shows the clock (manuscript), and a fact a child doesn't know yet has nothing to retrieve.

How a fact moves, and when a skill is passed

In Peabody a fact climbs six levels: 0 unseen, 1 missed last time, 2 right with a hint or after a miss, 3 right first try, 4 quick and right first try with three options, 5 quick and right first try on two different days. Quick facts come back for review after gaps of 1, 3 and 7 days, then three weeks; a miss resets the climb.

Skills sit on a ladder: counting, making ten, adding, taking away, number sense, times tables, dividing. A rung is passed when enough of it has been seen, 80% of what was seen is solid, and only a few facts are still shaky.

Passed rungs are saved per child, so passing adding in one game counts in every game. Rounds rotate between the lowest two rungs not yet passed, and about one round in four reviews a passed one. The rule-by-rule version is how Peabody picks the next question.

Fluency practice: Math Dojo

Untimed practice teaches a fact; timed practice makes it automatic. Peabody keeps them apart. Everywhere else a new fact never has a clock. Math Dojo, the fact-speed room, is the one place speed is the point, and it only times facts a child has already got right somewhere in Peabody; an unmet fact is shown with its answer, read out and asked once, untimed, first.

Belts never go down, and a run only counts at 90% right or better, so guessing fast never pays. Sets go from +0 and +1 through doubles, make 10 and all sums to 20, the same for taking away, each times table from × 2 to × 12, dividing, and mixed. Dividing opens once a child has met 24 of the 78 times facts. The two modes so far are Flash Deck (20 cards; a missed card comes back three cards later) and Sprint 60 (sixty seconds against a ghost of your best pace). Kindergarten and younger answer with three boxes by default; older children use a number pad, and either can be switched.

What the research says about the practice itself

• Facts are the kind of skill practice software moves most. Kim and colleagues (2021) pooled 36 studies of apps for preschool to grade 3: effects were largest for constrained skills like counting and number facts (Measures Matter).
• Spread it out. A 2025 meta-analysis of 27 maths studies found spaced practice beat massed at g = 0.28 (Murray, Horner and Göbel).
• Short and often. Education Week's January 2026 summary of math-fact research suggests two to ten minutes at a time, several times a week, with timed practice once facts are known (Education Week).
• Mostly wins. Math Garden, a Dutch practice system used by thousands of children, picks questions a child has about a 75% chance of getting right (Hofman et al. 2018); Peabody builds rounds of about 30 questions, about 85% known, which comes to roughly 78% once lucky guesses on three boxes are taken out.

What this sheet doesn't tell you

• It is not a test. Peabody's levels and belts describe a child's answers in Peabody. They are not a grade-level score and do not diagnose anything.
• The grade columns are expectations, not deadlines. A child a year behind the standard is common and moves on with practice.
• Peabody has no efficacy study of its own. The research numbers belong to the studies; none are claims about Peabody.

Start free with no sign-up, or try the facts inside a game first: Rocket Number Blast is built on them.

Every grade also has its own page with the lesson parts, where practice starts and the games that ask those facts: see math by grade and the multiplication games and addition and subtraction games.

Questions parents ask

How many math facts are there?

It depends where you stop. Adding from 0 + 0 to 10 + 10 is 66 facts once 3 + 4 and 4 + 3 count as one, and the times tables to 12 × 12 are 78. Taking away and dividing are the same facts run backwards, which is why Peabody teaches each in the order of the facts it undoes.

What should my second grader know by the end of the year?

By the Common Core standard, every sum of two one-digit numbers from memory, and adding and taking away within 20 using strategies like making ten. Times tables are a third-grade target.

My child knows the facts but is slow. Is that a problem?

Not on its own. A right answer in five seconds is still known; speed comes from short, frequent practice of facts already known. About two seconds is the usual classroom target, and Peabody only puts a clock on facts your child has already got right.

Why does Peabody treat some facts as known on day one?

So the first round isn't a run of 0 + 1 for a child who is years past it. The facts treated as known depend on the grade, and they are only a starting guess: a miss puts a fact back in the learning pile straight away.