Math Fact Celebration

To celebrate the completion of learning our math facts, we had mini ice cream cones for lunch dessert. Each week we focused on a new set of math facts. They did a practice time test on Monday of each week and then the real test on Fridays. Students who had a passing grade, got into a "Math Facts Club" and got to sign their autograph to a poster in the hallway. The posters were a great incentive for the students to work hard to memorize their facts and the ice cream was a special bonus!

Addition Connect Four: Math Fact Practice

To help the students practice their addtion math facts, I created a game called Addition Connect Four. The students work in partners to roll two dice. They add the two dice together and cover up the corresponding number sentence. The first partner to cover four number sentences in a row wins. You can download the file at my TpT store.

Addition Connect Four

Fellow teachers, I just uploaded a new product to my TpT Store: Addition Connect Four. This engaging game allows students to practice math additon facts to sums of 12 or sums of 18. Students work in pairs to roll dice and adding their sums. They cover the corresponding number sentence on the board with a two color counter. The first student to get four number sentences covered in a row wins the game. Addition Connect Four would be a great addition to your math centers to build math fact fluency.

Don't Let the Cows Out

In math we play a game called "Don't Let the Cows Out" to practice math facts. The students sit in a circle, "the fence", while two "ranchers" go in the middle of the circle. They use two large dice, "the cows", throw in the middle. The first "rancher" to add the two dice together correctly stays in the circle while the other goes to sit down. If the "cows" go outside of the fence, they both are out. This little trick deters the kids from throwing the dice to far and keeps the game from getting out of control.

Domino Doubles Snack

To introduce the conept of doubles, the students created dominoes out of graham crackers, vanilla icing, and milk chocolate morsels. They first put one piece of chocolate on each side and verbally identified the addition number sentence. They continued by adding one morsel to each side of the domino until we reached the sum of 18. Then, of course, they enjoyed eating their snack!

Ways to Make Ten Posters

A common strategy to help students with learning math facts is to teach them to make ten. These posters help the students visualize, on Ten Frames, how many are needed to add to various numbers in order to make ten. Once they know how many is needed to make ten, they can the add the remaining number to ten. For example, with the addition problem 8+5, the student visualizes that it takes 2 more to make 10 from the 8. They then visualize that 5-2= 3. So, 8+5 is the same as 10+3. You can download the posters from my TPT store.

Fact Family Flowers

My teammate, Ms. Branch, shared an engaging math lesson on fact families that went perfectly with our garden theme. Each student traced a flower outline with four petals. They then created a stem and leaf. I gave each student a triangle fact family card. They wrote the three numbers from their fact family on the leaf. On the petals, they wrote the four corresponding fact family sentences. We then added them to our garden display.

Math Facts Wall of Fame

As you can read about in my post titled Math Facts Checks, our grade learns various math facts each week. The students take a pre-check of their weekly facts on Wednesday and the real check on Fridays. If they earn 70% or higher, they get to add their name to our Math Facts Wall of Fame. The idea for the Math Facts Wall of Fame came from our Second Grade team. They have their students sign a Math Facts Club paper when they meet their goal. The students love doing this!

Online Flashcards and Timer

Fact Monster has decent online addition flashcards that the students can practice at home. You can find the flashcards here. In class when we take the math facts checks we use this online countdown clock so the students can monitor their own progress. Another great site to practice addition flashcards is Mr. Martini's classroom site. These flashcards are much larger and the students can click on the sum at the bottom of the card rather than typing in the answer.

Math Facts Checks

This nine weeks we wil begin our emphasis on learning math facts. Each week your child will create addition flashcards in class which will be sent home to study. each Friday the students will be given fifty addition problems which they must complete within five minutes. This averages out to be about six seconds per problem. Eventually the students need tobe able to identify the math facts within three second. But, we will build up to this goal gradually. Studnets who do not earn at least 70% on their math facts check will have the opportunity to be rechecked for a sticker on their goal sheet but the original grade will remain. We will work on the addition facts in this order:

Week 1: +1
Week 2: +2
Week 3: +3
Week 4: +4
Week 5: +5
Week 6: +6
Week 7: +7
Week 8: +8
Week 9: +9

Don't Let the Cows Out!

A few years ago in an effort to find an engaging way for the students to practice math facts, I created a game called "Don't Let the Cows Out!" In this game, the students sit in a circle on the floor and take turns throwing two large foam dice into the center - we call the dice "cows." The first student to add the two numbers together stays in the middle and competes against the next player. The students are the fence and we have a rule that if the "cows" get out of the fence, you lose your turn and have to go clean up after the cows...you know, "cow patties." Yes, I realize this is strange but the kids love it!  And, it discourages the students from throwing the dice all over the room. I have no idea why this idea came to me but it surprisingly works and the kids love it! Now that the students are well-versed in the rules and expectations of this game, I can assign a "trail boss" to monitor the game while I provide other students with small group instruction in math. The students who are not in the middle provide encouragement with cheers and by pretending to make food for players who have been in the circle for a while. It keeps the students active while waiting their turn. We try to play this game at least fifteen minutes per math period to spiral in math facts but they would play all day if I would let them. They love it so much they ask to play it when we have indoor recess.