Math Fact Friday: Multiplication Games and Centers

This morning while cuddling with my cat, drinking tea, and looking though pinterest on my phone I found a blog post by Wag More with some AMAZING math fact games!  I don't know about you, but I'm going to print out some multiplication tables and cut them into puzzles RIGHT NOW!  Head over to the blog post for inspiration and ideas.

Math Fact Friday: 3 Card Games

My students’ favorite Math Fact Fridays are always when we get to play games.  Any time I see playing cards (especially themed) in the Target “1-spot”, I buy them.  Something about that 1-spot has me addicted! (See what I do with the file folders here!)  I’ve also found plain playing cards and a set of six dice there!  I now have Hello Kitty, Cars, and plain playing cards.

Playing cards are easy resources for math games because they are so cheap and versatile.  You can write the directions on the board or print a hand out for each student to keep in their binder.  These math games can be used as a warm-up, a treat for the end of the day on Friday (which is what I usually did), or a station. 

Math Fact Friday: Lap books

Lap books have taken homeschooling by storm.  Just type in “Lap books” into Pinterest and you will see what I mean.  There are lap books for almost every topic and grade level.  The most handy pre-made math lap book is for math facts.

If you don’t know what a lap book is, it is basically a mini, interactive, presentation board.  The basic lap book is made from a file folder with foldables and graphic organizers glued on.  The students I’ve used them with LOVE them because it is theirs to keep.  I’ve used them with graphing, factoring, fraction operations, and math facts.

Math Fact Friday: Khan Academy

 If you would like to know more about why I do Math Fact Friday, please see my first post on it here.

Another great resource for Math Fact Friday is Khan Academy.  When I was in the classroom, I had a class set of netbooks and headphones (very important!) I could use and had students practice their Khan Academy for 5-10 minutes for Math Fact Friday.  It was great because students could practice lessons at THEIR LEVEL.  It was the definition of differentiation in the math class.  Khan Academy has practice lessons from basic adding all the way through calculus.  It also has videos and hints to help struggling students.  As a teacher it was great because from my teacher account I could see what the students were working on and how many problems they got right or wrong.  When I used Khan Academy for Math Fact Friday, I would let students choose any lesson they wanted to work on or math video they wanted to watch.  This fosters a curiosity about math for students instead of a fear of hard math.  You’ll notice the less confident students working on extremely easy problems, which in turn helps build their confidence.  You’ll also see confident students attempting calculus problems when they are in Algebra 1! 

Math Fact Friday: Dad’s Worksheets

When I taught sixth grade math last year, I noticed a common denominator (no pun intended) between the students that were struggling.  None of them knew their math facts. 

Now I am a very conceptual teacher; however, once students understand HOW to add, subtract, multiply, and divide, they need to know how to do it quickly.  This usually involves little to no conceptual teaching which is why, I think, it has been forgotten by many teachers recently during the latest education fad.  Students have to have their math facts memorized.  It leads to more confidence, less time doing homework, and over all more success in math. 

This is why I instituted “Math Fact Fridays”.  At the start of the year, two of my sixth graders were at a 4^th grade level in math, right before spring break, they were right on grade level.  I think a HUGE part of their success was Math Fact Fridays. 

This year I have started exclusively tutoring.  The students that are struggling in their classes don’t know their math facts.  Before I help them with their topics they are coving in class, I always have them learn their math facts.  The biggest improvement I have seen is by an in-depth review on math facts.

I’m going to be sharing resources I used with my sixth graders last year and those that I use with my tutoring students currently.  I hope you see as much success in your students with these resources as I have!