NZ Curriculum · Phase 1 (Years 0–3)

What your child learns in Year 2 Maths

Year 2 sits in the foundations phase — number sense, early patterns, measuring, shapes, and first steps with data. Below is every skill the refreshed New Zealand Curriculum (2025) expects a Year 2 student to practise — 50 objectives across 5 strands — exactly as our tutors track them.

Number

Number structures
  • Reading and writing whole numbers up to 120, and representing them using base 10 structure
  • Comparing and ordering whole numbers up to 120
  • Using te reo Māori for numbers up to 100
  • Recognising the place value of each digit in a two-digit number, and a three-digit number up to 120
  • Approximately locating numbers up to 120 on a partially labelled number line (e.g. 61 on a number line labelled in tens)
  • Finding the total number of objects up to 120 by separating them into groups (e.g. groups of ten)
  • Rounding numbers up to 120 to the nearest 10
  • Counting forwards in 3s from multiples of 3s
  • Counting forwards and backwards in 2s, 5s, and 10s from any whole number between 0 and 120
  • Identifying odd and even numbers up to 120
Operations
  • Memorising addition and subtraction facts up to 20 (e.g. 17 + 3 = 20)
  • Memorising doubles and halves to 20
  • Adding and subtracting numbers up to 100 (e.g. 32 + 20 or 32 + 2)
  • Adding and subtracting 3 one-digit numbers (e.g. 7 + 3 + 6).
  • Adding 100 to a one-digit number
  • Solving one-step addition and subtraction problems involving numbers up to 100
  • Solving multi-step addition and subtraction problems involving numbers up to 20
  • Identifying the relationship between skip counting and multiplication facts for 2s, 5s, and 10s
  • Memorising multiplication and corresponding division facts for 2s, 5s, and 10s
  • Multiplying and dividing with products and dividends up to 100
Rational numbers
  • Recognising, reading, writing (using symbols and words), and representing halves, thirds, and quarters ( 1 — 3 , 1 — 4 , 2 — 4 , 1 — 2 , 2 — 3 , 3 — 4 ) as fractions of sets, quantities, and regions, using equal parts of the whole
  • Recognising the equivalence of 2 — 4 and 1 — 2
  • Directly comparing two fractions involving halves, thirds, or quarters
  • Finding a half, quarter, or third of a set by identifying groups and patterns (rather than sharing by ones)
  • Finding a whole when given a 1 — 2 , 1 — 3 , or 1 — 4 of a length, shape, or set of objects or quantities
Financial mathematics
  • Recognising and ordering New Zealand denominations according to their value, making groups of 'like' denominations, and calculating their value
  • Combining denominations of currency (either all notes or all coins) to make a particular value

Algebra

Equations and relationships
  • Checking the truth of number sentences involving direct comparisons of whole numbers up to 120 (e.g. 16 > 60, true or false?)
  • Checking the truth of number sentences and completing open number sentences involving addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division using tens frames, discrete materials, or number lines (e.g. 18 + __ = 17 + 6, 6 ÷ __ = 2, 2 + 2 + 2 = 3 × 2, true or false?)
  • Recognising and describing the unit of repeat in a repeating pattern, and using the unit of repeat and ordinal position in a repeating pattern to predict further elements (e.g. ACDC in the pattern ACDCACDCACDC)

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Measurement

Measuring
  • Estimating and using an informal unit repeatedly to measure the length, mass (weight), or capacity of an object
  • Comparing and ordering several objects using informal units of length, mass (weight), or capacity
  • Estimating and measuring length (cm), mass (g), and capacity (mL), using tools with labelled markings and whole-number metric units
  • Measuring the perimeter of polygon using metric units
  • Turning an object or person and describing how far they have turned, using full, half, quarter, and three-quarter turns as benchmarks
  • Naming and ordering the months and seasons
  • Describing durations of familiar events using years, months, weeks, and days, or hours, minutes and seconds
  • Telling the time on analogue and digital clocks to the hour, half-hour, and quarter-hour, using the language of ‘past’ and 'o'clock'
  • Naming the month before and the month after
  • Using ordinal numbers to identify months of the year

Geometry

Shapes
  • Identifying, describing, visualising, and sorting 2D and 3D shapes, including ovals, semicircles, polygons (e.g. hexagons, pentagons), rectangular prisms (cuboids), pyramids, and cones, using the attributes of shapes
Spatial reasoning
  • Flipping, sliding, and turning 2D shapes to make a pattern or compose a shape
Pathways
  • Following and giving instructions to move to a different location, using direction, distances (e.g. number of steps), and half and quarter turns
  • Interpreting diagrams to describe the positions of objects and places in relation to other objects and places.

Statistics

Developing knowledge from data
  • Collecting categorical data for an investigative question with limited categories (e.g. What are the favourite pets of students in our class?)
  • Sorting categorical data into categories and considering if “other” should be a category for sorting rare responses
  • Recording data using tally charts
Visualisation of data
  • Creating data visualisations for categorical data
Interpretation of data
  • Describing data visualisations using the variable name and the context and giving the frequency for each category
  • Answering questions about data visualisations, including which category has the most or least items

Want help getting there? Vertex Academy runs small-group Study Hubs in Avondale — one $59/week membership, aligned to these curriculum objectives, first session free.

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Learning objectives sourced from the New Zealand Curriculum (Mathematics and Statistics, 2025) © Ministry of Education, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Vertex Academy is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Ministry of Education.