Try This to Promote Fact Fluency at Your School!
Reflex Math…I LOVE IT! Kids LOVE it! In case you aren’t familiar with Reflex, it is a computer program that web based and helps students learn their math facts. The computer program is like a video game so it is very engaging to kids. I wrote more about Reflex math here. I am always trying to think of ways to encourage students to be a little more competitive about learning their facts, so I host a contest every quarter. We just finished our first Reflex contest a few weeks ago. While the contest was going on, I created a bulletin board with the students who were in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place weekly. I also announced these students every week. When the contest was over, I posted the students photographs on the bulletin board with their names.
I also posted the students’ fluency certificates on the wall beside the bulletin board.
When students earn a certificate, they get to pick out a prize. A teacher at my school met one of the representatives from Reflex at a conference this summer and the representative gave her lots of free prizes. The kids especially love the fake tattoos.
In case you don’t have Reflex at your school and you would like to try it out, they offer grants to teachers to try it out for free for 12 months.
Use These in Your Classroom for Addition Fact Fluency
I have to share two great videos one of our teachers found for teaching doubles math facts. She also inspired me to find a video for bonds of ten. This year our district opened up the You Tube site for us to use. Previously You Tube had been blocked. The kids absolutely L-O-V-E the doubles videos! They are great if kids are restless or need a moment to move since they have a fun beat. See for yourself!
Now, in my head when I’m going home, I’m singing, “Doubles, Doubles I can Add Doubles.”
You Can Learn Something From a First Grader…
This past week I was asking a first grader how she had solved a math problem. When she showed me how she had used her fingers, I realized something amazing. She actually saw doubles on her fingers. I had never paid attention to exactly how students had used their fingers to solve problems. She used each hand as the separate addends in a problem, but more specifically she used each hand as the addends of an addition problem with doubles. So for example, she was easily able to see that 4 and 4 make 8 and that two more fingers (doubles plus 2) make 10– put one more finger up on each hand to make five fingers on each hand or ten fingers altogether. She used this strategy fluently, but it had never dawned on me to see patterns with doubles on two hands. I had always thought of the number four as just four fingers on one hand alone–not as two fingers on two different hands.
