Teaching math facts to 2nd and 3rd
graders is kind of like wanting to lose weight.
It would just be easier to take a pill.
But, alas, just like there is no weight loss pill, there is no math fact
pill! You just need to do the work.
But first, why memorize math facts? I made my eldest memorize math facts because
that was what he was “supposed” to do.
As my children got older, we saw kids that had never memorized math
facts, and consequently could NOT do simple division and multiplication problems
without the use of their calculators, I became convinced that it was imperative
that my younger sons memorize their math facts.
More on this later, but I don’t let my students use calculators for math
until Algebra 2. We do use a Calculator
Math curriculum so that they know HOW to use their calculator, but for their
math lessons, I make sure that they understand the way they need to compute
everything.
I taught math facts using two tools. We used Calculadder http://www.schoolmadesimple.com/calculadder.html
for speed, as a drill every day. Each page allows you to do a 2 minute to 5
minute timed test. After my children got
a perfect score on a page, I would allow them to move on to the next
level. After they were finished with all
6 books, they were done.
Priscilla detested the math drills. She didn’t mind doing the computation, but
she did mind being timed. She would protest
that she would never be timed in real life.
One day, I had the opportunity, as we sat in a drive-thru line at Taco
Bell, to teach her that sometimes we live in a timed math test. I said to the five passenger children sitting
in my 12 passenger van, “I have $10.
Figure out what you want, and how much it costs, and let’s see if we
have enough for drinks! I have until the
two cars in front of me drive away from the speaker. Oh, no!
It’s a timed math test!” With
David and Priscilla taking orders, and starting the math on the $0.69 tacos and
burritos, I heard whooping and hollering, and stomping of feet as they were
adding up out loud. I’m sure Stephen was
only screaming because he was trying to keep up, even though he was only 6, and
Philip was just stomping his toddler feet to add to the excitement. David proudly announced the total of what the
younger set wanted. And Priscilla
proudly added that we could get 3 drinks.
She never fussed about the timed math tests after that.
The second tool I used was simple flash cards. I had one set each of addition, subtraction,
multiplication and division. I would
introduce a game called Penny Math. I
read about it years ago. I’m sorry I
can’t reference the original author. As
soon as they had been introduced to the 9’s in addition, I’d start them in
addition.
I’d keep a timer, a bowl of change, and the flash
cards. Each day I’d give them ONE round. I’d set the timer to two minutes. I’d let them answer the flash cards for the
full 2 minutes. I would give them a
penny for each card they answered correctly within the two minutes. After they answered 30 correctly, I’d move
them to 1 minute for the next day. After
a couple days of trying that, when they would get to 30 answered correctly in 1
minute, I’d move to 30 seconds. It might
take a couple of weeks to get to 30 in 30 seconds, but that was the goal. After they could do that, I would consider
that their math facts were memorized.
I’d do this with the four different sets of cards (addition,
subtraction, multiplication, division).
I remember at one time, David said it was his goal to answer 29 in 30
seconds so that he could just keep collecting 29 cents a day. He may have tried, but pretty much after
having his math facts memorized he’d go over the 30 in the 30 seconds.
A side benefit to Penny Math. I’d have them keep their cups of pennies within easy reach.
Sometimes, after our Penny Math drills, which typically took under 2
minutes, we’d spend more time changing pennies for nickels, nickels for
quarters, and even quarters for dollars.
They learned their money values at the same time!
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