Add up to 3 four-digit numbers using column addition

I can add two or more 4-digit numbers using column addition involving regrouping.

Download all resources

Share activities with pupils

New

Year 4

Add up to 3 four-digit numbers using column addition

I can add two or more 4-digit numbers using column addition involving regrouping.

Download all resources

Share activities with pupils

These resources will be removed by end of Summer Term 2025.

Switch to our new teaching resources now - designed by teachers and leading subject experts, and tested in classrooms.

View new resources

Slide deck

Download slide deck

Skip slide deck

Lesson details

Key learning points

We can use column addition to add 4-digit numbers.
When adding, we regroup 10 hundreds as 1 thousand.
Make sure that any regrouped thousands are added with the values in the thousands column.
Make sure that all regrouped values are added in the correct column.

Keywords

Column addition - Column addition is a way of adding numbers by writing a number below another.
Regrouping - The process of unitising and exchanging between place values is known as regrouping. For example, 10 tens can be regrouped as one hundred and one hundred can be regrouped as 10 tens.

Common misconception

Incorrectly aligning 3-digit and 4-digit numbers resulting in an incorrect sum.

Practise partitioning 3 and 4-digit numbers into thousands, hundreds, tens and ones to support when placing in columns. This will also support in understanding the relationship between the columns when regrouping.

Base 10 is used to support visualisation of the first few examples, but once able to do this, children should be able to apply their learning of column addition with 3-digits to 4-digit calculations and this scaffold can be removed.