Grade 6 Math Skills Checklist: What Students Should Know

Explain a ratio using words, symbols, and context—for example, 3:5 or 3 to 5.

Generate and recognize equivalent ratios.

Use tables, tape diagrams, double number lines, or equations to represent ratio relationships.

Find and interpret a unit rate, including situations involving fractional quantities.

Solve real-world problems involving rates, unit prices, speed, recipes, and scaling.

Understand percent as a rate per 100 and find a percent of a quantity.

Use ratio reasoning to convert measurement units within a system.

Divide a fraction by a fraction and explain the meaning of the quotient.

Solve real-world problems involving division of fractions.

Divide multi-digit whole numbers accurately and efficiently.

Add, subtract, multiply, and divide multi-digit decimals accurately.

Find the greatest common factor and least common multiple of whole numbers.

Use the distributive property to rewrite a sum using a common factor.

Interpret positive and negative numbers in real-world contexts such as temperature, elevation, and money.

Locate and compare rational numbers on horizontal and vertical number lines.

Understand opposites, order, and absolute value.

Write and interpret inequalities involving rational numbers.

Plot ordered pairs in all four quadrants of the coordinate plane.

Find distances between points that share the same x-coordinate or y-coordinate.

Write and evaluate numerical expressions containing whole-number exponents.

Use the order of operations accurately, including parentheses and exponents.

Translate words and real-world situations into algebraic expressions.

Identify terms, factors, coefficients, constants, and variables in an expression.

Evaluate an expression or formula after substituting values for variables.

Apply the commutative, associative, and distributive properties.

Recognize and generate equivalent expressions.

Understand an equation as a statement that two expressions are equal.

Solve one-variable equations involving nonnegative rational numbers.

Write an inequality to represent a real-world constraint or condition.

Graph a one-variable inequality on a number line.

Identify dependent and independent variables.

Represent relationships using tables, equations, and graphs.

Find the area of triangles.

Find the area of parallelograms, trapezoids, and other quadrilaterals.

Find the area of irregular polygons by composing or decomposing shapes.

Use coordinates to find side lengths and draw polygons in the coordinate plane.

Find the volume of a right rectangular prism, including prisms with fractional edge lengths.

Recognize and draw nets for three-dimensional figures.

Use nets to find the surface area of prisms and pyramids.

Solve real-world problems involving area, surface area, and volume.

Recognize a statistical question as one that expects variability in the data.

Explain why a data set can have different values and describe the amount of variation.

Display numerical data using dot plots, histograms, and box plots.

Describe the overall shape of a distribution.

Identify clusters, peaks, gaps, and possible outliers.

Calculate and interpret the mean and median.

Calculate and interpret measures of spread such as range, interquartile range, and mean absolute deviation.

Choose an appropriate measure of center and spread for the data and context.

Summarize a data set by reporting the number of observations and what was measured.

Relate numerical summaries back to the original real-world question.

Make sense of a problem and keep working when the solution is not immediate.

Reason with quantities and symbols, and move between the two appropriately.

Explain reasoning clearly and evaluate another person's method.

Use mathematics to model a real situation.

Choose tools strategically, including drawings, rulers, calculators, tables, or digital tools.

Use accurate language, notation, units, and calculations.

Look for useful structures, patterns, and relationships.

Notice repeated reasoning and use it to work more efficiently.