What is a fact family……

The students have been subtraction kings and queens since we have been back from break.  We have counted back, used numbers lines to hop back, drew pictures and crossed out, put out counters and took away, put up fingers and put them down all so the students can find a strategy that works best for them.  At this point now students have attached to a strategy and they are putting them to good use. 

We have been equation detectives these days.  I have been giving them equations such as this  6 +7 = 14-0.  They then have used their counters and a index card with an equal sign to check if it is balance.  IS is true or false?   Ask your kiddo they can tell you!  Use beans or cheerios as counters at home.  Here are a few more examples:

4+5=6+3

6-0= 3+3

9-2 = 8+1

10-0 = 12+2

We have used subtraction to find the missing addends/factors.  We first used counting on to solve a problem such as this 5 +___ = 12.  They would have put 5 in their head and put up a finger until they reached 12.  Try it, how many fingers did you have up? Now I was teaching them to use inverse operations to find the missing addend or factor.  12-5 =____ . 

Here as few examples to try: 6+ __=14      17-____=10      4+ ____=12

Fact Families has shown how addition and subtraction are related.  We have a dice widget on our easiteach software that looks like the dice bubble in the games Trouble.  They go over an pop it and it gives them 2 dice. They use those 2 numbers to find the third number in their fact family.  Say the dice are 2, and 3, well third number would be 5. Here is what your fact family would look like:

2+3=5

3+2=5

5-2=3

5-3=2

Here are a few fact families, see if your child can make the family.

4,5,9

6,7,13

7,4,11

8,2,10

We have stepped away from our math workbooks and have used a lot of manipulatives and our little white boards.  Once they understand the skill we use the workbooks for practice.  They have been loving math!! 

If you have any question please shoot me an email or call the school! 

We also have been using our third 9 weeks math journal as a review and introduction to new concepts that won’t be directly taught until later in the year. 

We also do a math fact races several times a week so that these addition facts become automatic so they are not counting on their fingers for ever.  They get 1 minute and what ever is competed in colored pencil was finished after the minute is up. 

Students get what ever manipulates they need when they complete their tests.