Games and Activities x ÷ Fact Family Cards |
x ÷ card info |
activities to build concepts games and activities to build speed |
You can split your deck of fact family cards into two piles: facts you are learning and facts you know. Use the activities to build concepts to help you learn and picture new facts. Use the activities to build speed to get faster with the facts you already know.
* activities to build concepts
* Egg Carton Math
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* Make a Rectangle
You can also make rectangles with Cuisenaire rods. This way the colors also help to reinforce the problems. If you don't have Cuisenaire rods, you can color and cut out strips of centimeter graph paper to use in the same way. Store them in an envelope or a plastic zippered bag. The colors are:
Make a multiplication table, using the same size of graph paper. Place the numbers 1 - 10 running down the left side and running across the top, with a multiplication sign in the top left corner. Draw 2 thicker lines to separate out the answers. Fill in the answers carefully. (At least fill in the products for the facts you are learning.)
Here are 3 x 4 and 4 x 3 (with the grid numbers covered by the rods shown):
To show 3 x 4, think: 3 groups of 4. Lay 3 purple rods on the multiplication grid, starting at the top left corner of the answer area. Then peek under the bottom right corner of the rectangle. You should find a 12 there. To show 4 x 3, think: 4 groups of 3. Lay 4 light green rods in the same way and peek under the bottom right
corner. Again you should find a 12.
* Make a Rod Train
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* games and activities to build speed
These activities are meant to be used only after you have become very familiar with each card, using some of the ideas in the activities to build concepts section above.
* Shrinking Time Limit
Ask a partner to time you as you answer each card. Agree on a time limit. You might start with 10 seconds per card. If you answer a card correctly within the time limit, set it aside and go on to the next card. If you cannot answer the card correctly within the time limit, take all the time you need to figure it out, using objects or skip-counting. Then explain out loud how you solved the problem. Set these harder cards in a different pile as you answer each one. After you finish going through the stack, return to the pile of harder cards (which took you longer to answer). Repeat the steps above with the same time limit, seeing which harder cards you can now answer within the time limit, and taking as much time as you need to figure out the others and explain how you figured them out.
When you are able to go through the whole pile within your time limit, set a shorter time limit and repeat the steps above. Eventually your goal is to answer each card in 3 seconds or less!
* Hide Two This game is partly skill and partly luck. But the better you know your facts, the faster you'll be able to say all of the possible pairs of hidden numbers, and you'll have a better chance of keeping your cards.
* 3-Minute Sort When the three minutes are up, count how many cards are in each pile. Now place the fact family house so that it covers a different portion of each card, and time yourself again. Can you get through more cards in the stack this time?
* Four Facts in the Family
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