Do your students struggle with fact fluency?

Whether it's addition, subtraction, multiplication or division, many students struggle with fluency on a daily basis.

This was an area that we really worked hard on to improve with my students this past year.

And guess what??

Even though they were a lower math group, they all succeeded in learning their addition and subtraction facts to 20. I was so very, very proud of them.

The first thing I did was to implement this Interactive Data Board.

Display "Whoo Knows Their Math Facts" as a data chart to track students' progress.

My students really enjoyed getting to see their improvement. As they learned each fact, the student got to sign his/her name on the leaf for the fact.

To go along with the Interactive Data Board, we also have Brain Math every Monday.

Have you ever heard of Brain Math?

I hadn't either until a fellow teacher shared it with me.

I started it the very next day after he shared and can I just say...

It was AWESOME!!!

It helped my children so much with their fluency facts for addition and subtraction to 20.

Here's how it works...

Have the students use dry/erase boards and numbers 1-10.

Use your projector system or SmartBoard to show the fluency slides.

Decide on a time limit. (I started at 10 seconds for each slide.)

Have the students number their boards. (Most are 1-10, but some vary.)

The students write ONLY the answer next to the number.

(Be sure you say the number as you change slides.)

On this slide, I would say, "#5" and the students would write ONLY the answer of 5.

We would continue in a like manner every 10 seconds until we reach this slide.

When we reach this slide, all of the students would put their markers down and then pick up their erasers

As we went over the answers, they would erase any wrong answers.

As we go over the answers, I am walking the room and scanning their boards.

At a later point (after practicing each set several times), I give an informal test.

I usually do 4 at one time by having students fold a piece of notebook paper into fourths. At the top of each section, they write the name of the slide, number 1-10, and then write their answers.

By the time we get to this step, I expect the students to be able to answer in 4-5 seconds so we go through the slides quickly.

Either have your students exchange papers to grade, or plan on grading yourself.

You can receive your own freebie to try out by clicking on the picture.