Addition Strategies for Fact Fluency

At the beginning of each school year in math, one of the first skills I focus on is teaching my students a variety of strategies to teach fact fluency for recalling basic facts up to 20 with automaticity.  I try to put as many tools in their toolbox as I can to help them feel more confident and to differentiate instruction.  We focus on Touch Math, making 10, doubles, doubles +1, counting on, and related facts.

Research shows that long-term success in math is closely tied to having strong number sense.  This includes having fluency with basic facts.  Math only gets more complicated the further along the children go, and expending mental energy counting to solve addition and subtraction facts is a waste of their time.

Automaticity does not happen overnight, and it shouldn't simply be a memorization of facts. It is usually acquired in a certain order.

• First, children begin by understanding that numbers represent quantities.  They typically learn about this in pre-k and kinder.  

• Second, they can begin using procedures to figure out facts.  They develop ways to remember facts through strategies. (This is where we began this week). 

• Third, children can achieve recalling facts with automaticity.

One strategy we focused on this week was doubles facts.  We watched a Doubles Rap you can see by clicking below: 

I love this video, but I wish the quality were better and that it had the lyrics and facts captioned on-screen.  It would be more effective that way, but, beggars can't be choosers, right?! 

However, Flocabulary has an AWESOME video about doubles!  Do you guys know about Flocabulary?  Think Ron Clark meets YouTube.  All the awesome songs about every content area, but in an animated form with subtitles.  My kids LOVE it!  (And I do, too!) . My district pays for our subscription, but they have a free trial if you want to check it out!

We used a couple of things from Amy Lemons' packet called Learning Our Addition Strategies. 

This has a copy of the lyrics to the Doubles Baby rap.  I made a copy of for each student to glue into his or her math journal.  Then, we made the Double's Dude craftivity to reinforce that strategy.  They are super cute AND give the kids a visual reminder of the doubles strategy.  

We also focused on counting on.  We glued in the little poster from Amy Lemons' product, and then played several games to practice this strategy.  (See games pictured below).

The counting on strategy teaches the children to begin by counting with the largest number and then add the smaller number on to it.  This seems obvious, but children often add numbers in the order in which they appear instead of determining the fastest way to get to the sum.  (This strategy will also come in handy when we start adding more than 2 numbers at once).  

To practice counting on, we played a fun partner game called "Walk the Plank."  The kids love this game.  I play it every year. 

The students have a "plank," playing pieces, and dice.  I use 10-sided dice so they can add numbers all the way through 20.   They roll the dice, add the two numbers together, and then remove their opponents playing piece that is next to that number.  

You can click here to see how to play the game.  Click here to get Walk the Plank for YOUR classroom.  

We also played a game of Fast Fact Scoot! created by Schroeder Shenanigans in 2nd.

 

Automaticity is usually achieved in small increments.  We focus on one or two sets of facts, and then we build upon those.  Then, once those are maintained, we build with another set of facts. 

I hope your school year is off to a great start and that you can incorporate some of these activities and strategies into your math instruction!

Make each moment a teachable one!

Five for Friday!

Goodness, friends!  I can't believe it's already #Friyay!  We are starting a new six weeks when we return on Tuesday!  Don't hate me because I get a three day weekend!  I'm gonna be outta there like

That also means summer is just around the corner!  I can't believe my 4th graders are about to leave me and become big 5th graders!

What amazing things did you do in your classroom this week?  Did you nail an amazing lesson?  Were your kids on fire this week?  Do you feel like you made a difference?

Here are 5 things going on in my little world that I'm awfully proud of!  5, because it's Five for Friday with Doodlebugs!

Student Gifts!

I have the sweetest students who are always writing me notes, asking to help me, and drawing me pictures.  
The other morning, one of my kiddos brought in this beautiful picture she painted for me on a little canvas!  It was so touching because she is not usually very outspoken and is one of those kids that I'm not ever sure if I am connecting with or not.  Well, this sealed the deal for me!  I love it!

Remember the Alamo!  Remember Goliad!

We learned about the important Battle of San Jacinto this week in Social Studies.  My kids were pumped about it and I could barely get through the lesson because of all the questions they had for me!  I don't know about you, but I find classroom discussions to be so fun and a way to make them feel like they, too, are in charge of their learning.

We finished up by making these amazing pennants from The Little Ladybug Shop.  You can snag them by clicking here or the picture below!

They were a great way to assess their knowledge over the battle in a fun way, and it made for cute classroom decoration!

Front of pennant

Back of pennant

Skittles Dot Plots

We learned about dot plots in math this week.  I'm not gonna lie - never in my life have I heard of dot plots, nor do I know where in the real world one would ever want to use them, but, the state of Texas says I am to teach dot plots, so teach them I do!

I wanted a way to spice up this skill, and I candy gets my kids motivated!  I asked them each to bring in a bag of Skittles by Thursday, and I had no idea there were so many varieties of Skittles!  Luckily, it really didn't matter the color/flavor.

It reminded me of when I did my graphing unit in 2nd grade with m&ms!  (You can get it for FREE in my store!) 

Draw It! Write It!

I also updated my vocabulary activity called "Draw It, Write It!"  I love having an engaging way for my kids to learn new vocabulary and to gain a deeper understanding of the words.  I originally made this when I was in 2nd grade, but now that I teach 4th, I needed it to be a little more challenging, so I updated it to have several versions that can span many grade levels, and can be used to differentiate instruction.

It works well at small group, centers, independent work, homework, partner work, etc, etc!  You can pick it up here!

Kindergarten Round-Up!

On a personal note, we registered our twins for Kindergarten this week.  I feel like I was just this huge - 

Headed to the hospital!

and now look at them...all big and ready to be onto the next chapter!

That is my week in a nutshell!  I'd love to connect with you!  Leave your comments below and tell me what you were up to this week!  What was the BEST thing that happened to you, or that you made happen this week?