Math Facts Practice

Fun math facts practice and best ways of teaching math facts that helps kids learn basic math facts.

Kids need strategies for learning math facts. We want to develop procedural fluency in math (National Research Council, 2001).

Concentrate on teaching math facts strategies and concepts when beginning teaching math addition facts.

Over time, most students will develop their own efficient techniques that will lead to automaticity (mastering basic math facts).

We'll start with specific strategies for math addition facts, then you can hop over to the next page for more strategies for math facts practice in subtraction, multiplication and division.

Mastering Math Facts Practice:
Math Addition Facts

1. Build on what they already know

Use the doubles as a starting point for math addition facts. For example, 4 + 4 and 6 + 6 are easier for a child to remember. Then teach them how to use these doubles as a strategy for solving other combinations, such as 4 + 5 and 7 + 6.

You must be explicit with showing your thinking. Say, "This is what I did in my head while solving this problem. I know that 6 + 6 = 12, so I first used my doubles," (write or draw this on the board). "Then I added one more to the sum since 7 is one more than 6," (again, show this on the board). "That gives me a sum of 13. 7 + 6 = 13."

2. Counting on

"Counting on" is efficient only when the number being added on is less than 5. If we use it beyond addends of 5, children start to use their fingers, which is reinforcing an inefficient strategy. Always begin from the larger of the two numbers.

3. 10 Frame Fill - Classroom Focused Software

When learning math addition facts that make a ten, use a Ten Frame for create a visual image.

This is highly important for students who have difficulty with using their gestalt imagery for manipulating numbers. These students lack a concrete image of what numbers look like while they are being added.

The Ten Frame below shows a visual image of 7 + 3 = 10.

4. Joining All or Counting All

Let's use the example of 6 + 2. Using number cubes, make a set of 6 and another set of 2. Join them together (the two sets become one), and count the joined set.

Be sure to point at each cube as you and the student counts.

5. Make a Ten or Using a Ten

Students use the knowledge built from a Ten Frame to find the sums of larger numbers. Using this strategy, we can teach students to use the derived fact of "what makes a ten" to solve the equation.

A terrific app for this is Line 'em Up - Classroom Focused Software.

For example, to find 8 + 3, teach the student to decompose 3 into 2 + 1. Use that to show them that 8 + 2 = 10. 10 + 1 = 11, so 8 + 3 = 11.

A more advanced way could be: 14 + 9 = 9 + 1 + 10 + 3 = 10 + 10 + 3 = 23.

While this may seem to take a long time, with practice it becomes a very efficient method for calculating the sums of larger numbers, learning math facts, and mastering math facts.

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Once your students can use strategies for mastering math facts for addition, you can begin to build on those for subtraction, multiplication and division.

Remember that different strategies are used by different students. There is no strategy that is perfect for every child. Students need to choose the math facts practice strategy that works best for them.

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