I have discovered that math fact fluency is a hotly debated topic in math circles. The discussion revolving around what fluency actually means. No matter your feelings on math fluency we all know that kids need to have a grasp on understanding math facts.
Teaching fourth grade we are working on multi-digit multiplication (multiplying 2 x 2 digit numbers). This somewhat difficult skill can be made even more difficult when my students struggle to multiply 3 x 3 or 4 x 2. Throwing all the methods I can (shout out to my fav the lattice method) at my students are never going to be successful if they are trying to skip count 4 x 3.
I decided to jump in and start helping my kiddos recognize those basic facts. I bought I roll of 400 colorful hello my name is stickers off of amazon. Each student was assigned a fact. I sent an email blast out to the staff to ask my students their facts throughout the day. When answering students had to state the whole sentence (3 x 6 =18). This helped all of my students start to recall the basic facts even the one they were not wearing. To make it a little more fun students also came up with a math sentence for me. In case you are wondering 12 x 17 is 204.
While this is not the only strategy I used it certainly was a fun one and had an good impact on student learning.
What are some ways you help math fact fluency in your classroom?
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