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Fun with Facts! Part One by Irene Taylor |
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Math facts! Some kids love 'em, most hate 'em! But one thing is for sure. Success with these facts will help to insure success in future mathematics studies. You can help by giving your students some strategies for learning important math facts. Here are a few "tricks" which you can share with your class. After your students have mastered these strategies, they can apply them in everyday math work.
GENERAL STRATEGIES: Learning facts in families is a good way to increase mastery. Always have students learn facts in related groups. 2+3, 3+2, 5-3, and 5-2 are all related facts. So are 4x6, 6x4, 24 divided by 4, and 24 divided by 6. If a child learns facts in groups, it will actually lower the number of "new" facts to be learned. For a good way to practice (here's an oldie but goodie!), make flash cards with two related facts together on the same card (for example, both 4+5 and 5+4 on the front of the same card with 9 on the back as the answer to both problems). Have your students learn all of the "doubles" first. These are easy ones to remember, and there are only two related facts for each double: 4+4 and 8-4, for example. No matter which facts your student is learning, it is a good idea to mark off the facts that have already been mastered on a fact chart. This helps to track progress, and also is a good visual for seeing how few facts there are left to learn. For example, by the time your student gets to the 6 times table, she already should know: 1x6, 2x6, 3x6, 4x6, 5x6, and 6x6 from the previous times tables and the doubles. That only leaves three new facts: 7x6, 8x6,and 9x6 to be learned. Looking at the few new ones is much more encouraging than looking at the whole table, and students will be happy to see how many they already knows. ADDITION AND SUBTRACTION FACT STRATEGIES: 1. Doubles Plus One - Once your student has mastered the doubles, teach the "doubles plus one" strategy. For all facts that are one away from a "double" - for example, 4+5 , it is easy to remember the double fact, 4+4, and just add one to the answer. So if 4+4=8, then 4+5 is 9, one more than 8. This will also work as a "doubles minus one" strategy. In the above example, if the student knows 5+5 better, then 4+5 is one LESS than 10. 2. Counting On - For addition facts that involve a larger number plus 2, 3, or 4, teach students to "count on" to find the answer. For example, in 3+8, have students start with the 8 and count on three more - "nine, ten, eleven" to find the answer. Number facts are the building blocks of all other computation. Make learning them fun for your students. Encourage success, and he or she will continue to be successful in all math endeavors. Check back for part two of this article on some tricks for multiplication and division facts. © 2003 Irene Taylor. All rights reserved. Re-printed with permission. Originally published on Suite 101. |
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Irene Taylor is a teacher, a writer, and one who is interested in all aspects of education. She has taught in the elementary grades for 25 years and has had experience working with children on all levels and in many subjects. In addition to skiing in the winter and sailing in the summer, her other hobbies are sewing and reading, and of course, continuing to learn about the computer. Irene recommends two new courses at Suite 101 that are designed to teach children writing: Teaching Writing to Children - Part 1 and Teaching Writing to Children - Part 2 | ||
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