Math Fact Fluency Fun!
Parents ask a variety of questions during an educational consult, but one question that I’m repeatedly asked is, “How can I help my child learn their math facts?” I love this question! There are so many ways parents can help children develop their math fact fluency.
Math fluency refers to a child’s ability to retrieve math facts to working memory from storage memory. Teaching and reinforcing math fact fluency can be done daily in just a few minutes! Here are some ideas to help instill those addition, subtraction, multiplication and division facts.
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Dice Game: Grab a pair of dice. Roll the dice and add (or subtract) the numbers up! Each time someone gets the correct answer they get a point. Decide ahead of time how many rolls each player will receive. The person with the most points at the end wins.
Playing Cards: Use your traditional playing cards and divide the deck into two piles – one for each player. In this two-player game, each person throws down two cards at a time. Both players then add, subtract and multiply their cards. The one with the highest answer gets to keep all four cards (make sure to set the “keep” pile off to the side). The player with the most cards in his or her “keep pile" at the end wins.
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Tic-Tac-Toe Fact Fun! Grab a deck of math fact flashcards (addition, subtraction, multiplication and or division). Players must answer the math fact before putting on X or O on the board. The first person to get tic-tac-toe wins.
Math Fact Book: Using your math fact flashcards, have your child select a card each day and ask him or her to create a story based on the card. For example, your child may select a card that reads 15 minus 8. She can then create a story about how she had 15 balloons at a party and 8 flew away, how many did she have left? You can go a step further and have her write and illustrate the story in a math fact journal! This activity can work for a variety of age groups. For younger students, use addition and subtraction cards; for older kids, division or multiplication flashcards.
I tell parents that the ultimate goal is to make learning fun while practicing math fact fluency daily!
