Elementary School Life Skills Math Goals

Browse CCS-aligned IEP goals and objectives for time, money, measurement, and prepositions.

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Elementary School Life Skills Math Goals

These mathematics goals for students in Kindergarten to 5th grade focus on time, money, measurement, conversions, and positional language. Not seeing the grade level or skill you need? Check out our elementary school, middle school, and high school life skills math goals.
  • Describe objects in the environment using names of shapes, and describe the relative positions of these objects using terms such as above, below, beside, in front of, behind, and next to. CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.K.G.A.1
  • Probably the best way to assess it is using a real object, like a ball, and asking the student where it is. See if they can come up with the words next to or the others. If not, see if they can choose the right preposition. You can also use worksheets for this that you read to the student. The ones on this site are pretty good.

Looking for easy-to-use assessment resources or support with turning assessments into goals and present levels? Check out the IEP Success Kit in the store!

Given two choices, Jose can choose whether an object is on top of, below, or under another other. He needs teacher support to choose if the object is below, beside, in front of, or behind another object, choosing the correct answer 50% of the time. He is not yet using the prepositions on his own.

For more baseline ideas, check out the IEP Success Kit!

  • Name will describe the relative positions of objects using terms such as above, below, beside, in front of, behind, and next to with 80% accuracy on two of three occasions as measured by teacher records and observations CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.K.G.A.1
  • Let the student choose, not name, the prepositions.
  • Increase or decrease the number of prepositions the student needs to know. For example, add inside and outside.
  • Tell and write time in hours and half-hours using analog and digital clocks. CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.1.MD.B.3
  • This is one of the only telling time standards in the Common Core, which makes it a super useful standard! You can use any telling time worksheet, like this one to the hour or this one to the half hour. We also have time assessments in our PreK-2 assessment packet.

Looking for easy-to-use assessment resources or support with turning assessments into goals and present levels? Check out the IEP Success Kit in the store!

Given two choices (e.g., does it show 4 or 6 o’clock?), Madison can tell time to the hour with 40% accuracy. 

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  • Name will tell time in hours using analog clocks with 80% accuracy as measured by teacher records and observations CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.1.MD.B.3
  • Let the student choose, not say, the time.
  • Change it to “and half-hours”
  • Tell and write time from analog and digital clocks to the nearest five minutes, using a.m. and p.m. CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.2.MD.C.7

Looking for easy-to-use assessment resources or support with turning assessments into goals and present levels? Check out the IEP Success Kit in the store!

When given a reminder on which hand is the hour hand, Chase can tell time to the hour with 60% accuracy. He needs significant teacher support to tell time beyond that.

For more baseline ideas, check out the IEP Success Kit!

  • Name will tell and write time from analog clocks to the nearest five minutes, using a.m. and p.m, as needed with 80% accuracy as measured by teacher records and observations CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.2.MD.C.7
  • Let the student choose the correct time from one, two, or three choices.
  • Change it from 5 minutes to nearest hour or half-hour. Note this alters the standard, but if it is what the student needs, go for it!
  • Solve word problems involving dollar bills, quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies, using $ and ¢ symbols appropriately. Example: If you have 2 dimes and 3 pennies, how many cents do you have? CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.2.MD.C.8
  • Coin identification: We have coin identification in our PreK-2 assessment packet. There are also free ones, like this. If a student is lower functioning, it is much better though to assess this with real money. You can ask the name of the coin, its value, or both.
  • Adding coins: Again, we have some of that in the packet, but there are also free resources out there for this if you want a worksheet. This one and this one are pretty good. This is another one though that is better with real money for lower performing students!
  • Writing amounts: You can use those same worksheets to see if the student can write money.
  • Word problems with money: Here is a nice plain one. 

Looking for easy-to-use assessment resources or support with turning assessments into goals and present levels? Check out the IEP Success Kit in the store!

Brandon can identify quarters and pennies consistently and nickels and dimes with 50% accuracy. He can choose the value of pennies and nickels from two options and needs teacher support to add coins and calculate total amounts.

For more baseline ideas, check out the IEP Success Kit!

  • Given the exact number of coins needed for the problem, Name will solve simple addition word problems involving quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies with 80% accuracy as measured by teacher records and observations CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.2.MD.C.8
  • Add dollar bills to the mix, “involving dollar bills, quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies”
  • Remove word problems. That changes the goal, but makes it more accessible to students who need more support:  Name will solve addition and subtraction problems involving quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies with 80% accuracy as measured by teacher records and observations CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.2.MD.C.8
  • Change the coins the student needs to know; “quarters and pennies”
  • Tell and write time to the nearest minute and measure time intervals in minutes. Solve word problems involving addition and subtraction of time intervals in minutes, e.g., by representing the problem on a number line diagram. CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.MD.A.1

Looking for easy-to-use assessment resources or support with turning assessments into goals and present levels? Check out the IEP Success Kit in the store!

Dion can tell time to the hour with 80% accuracy. He can tell time to the half hour with 50% accuracy and time to the five minute or minute with under 10% accuracy.

For more baseline ideas, check out the IEP Success Kit!

  • Name will tell and write time to the nearest minute  with 80% accuracy as measured by teacher records and observations CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.MD.A.1
  • Let the student choose the correct time from one, two, or three choices.
  • Change it from minutes to hour or half-hour. Note this alters the standard, but if it is what the student needs, go for it!
  • Know relative sizes of measurement units within one system of units including km, m, cm; kg, g; lb, oz.; l, ml; hr, min, sec. Within a single system of measurement, express measurements in a larger unit in terms of a smaller unit. Record measurement equivalents in a two-column table. For example, know that 1 ft is 12 times as long as 1 in. Express the length of a 4 ft snake as 48 in. Generate a conversion table for feet and inches listing the number pairs (1, 12), (2, 24), (3, 36), … CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.4.MD.A.1

Looking for easy-to-use assessment resources or support with turning assessments into goals and present levels? Check out the IEP Success Kit in the store!

Nadiya is able to order feet, yards, and miles and tablespoons, cups, and gallons from smallest to greatest but she needs significant teacher support to convert between units. On her own, given a conversion chart and a calculator, she converts units with 20% accuracy. 

For more baseline ideas, check out the IEP Success Kit!

  • Given a measurement conversion chart, Name will, within a single system of measurement, express measurements in a larger unit in terms of a smaller unit, converting feet to inches, tablespoons to teaspoons, and pints to cups with 80% accuracy as measured by teacher records and observations CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.4.MD.A.1
  • Change what the student needs to convert, for example, focusing on just fluid measures like quarts to pints and pints to cups.
  • Change what supports the student is offered, like giving them actual measurement tools to use.
  • Focus on understanding relative sizes, modifying the goal to emphasize understanding the relative value of the units. 
  • Convert among different-sized standard measurement units within a given measurement system (e.g., convert 5 cm to 0.05 m), and use these conversions in solving multi-step, real world problems. CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.5.MD.A.1

Looking for easy-to-use assessment resources or support with turning assessments into goals and present levels? Check out the IEP Success Kit in the store!

Nadiya is able to order feet, yards, and miles and tablespoons, cups, and gallons from smallest to greatest but she needs significant teacher support to convert between units. On her own, given a conversion chart and a calculator, she converts units with 20% accuracy. 

For more baseline ideas, check out the IEP Success Kit!

  • Given a measurement conversion chart and a calculator, Name will convert among different-sized standard measurement units within a given measurement system (e.g., convert 5 cm to 0.05 m), converting yards, feet, and inches as well as cups, pints, quarts, and gallons with 80% accuracy as measured by teacher records and observations CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.5.MD.A.1
  • Change what the student needs to convert, for example, focusing on just fluid measures like quarts to pints and pints to cups.
  • Change what supports the student is offered, like giving them actual measurement tools to use.
  • Focus on understanding relative sizes, modifying the goal to emphasize understanding the relative value of the units. 

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