Ways to Easily Improve Fact Fluency In Students

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Fact fluency games are one of my favorite ways to improve fact fluency. The kids, of course, love them too! At the beginning of the year, I start with addition. The first nine weeks is devoted to just addition games and strategies. By the end of the first nine weeks, most of my students have mastered their addition facts, so we are able to move on to subtraction. After that, we continue with multiplication and division.

Here is a list of some of the games/activities we do in order to easily increase their automaticity of the math facts.

*Side note, this is in addition to our curriculum and is used when we have extra time.

Math Fact Fluency Games and Activities

  • Around the World– Give two students a math fact. Then, the first student to answer correctly moves to compete with the next person. You can do this until everyone has gotten a chance or until you or the kids get tired of playing.
  • Team Fact Competition– Get into two teams.  Stand the students in a row in their team.  Then, starting at the first person in each team, give them a math fact. Once they answer correctly, move on to the next person. The first team to make it through their entire team wins!
  • Flash light math– Write math facts on the board. Then, get into two teams. Turn the lights off. After that, use a flashlight to light up one of the math facts on the board. The first person in each team gets a chance to answer the problem. The first person to answer correctly gets a point for their team.
  • Flash cards- This might be basic, but helpful! The more your students are exposed to facts, the better. The students can work on this individually or quiz each other in partners.
  • Technology- There are so many different apps and computer games your students can play to increase their fact fluency. One of my favorites is xtramath.org. If you have not heard of this website, check it out!
  • Ball Toss- This is always fun! First, get the students in a circle and toss a ball with one another. As the student tosses the ball, they say the name of the person they are throwing the ball to and a math fact. I always give them a range of facts they can call out. For example, any facts between 0 and 10.
  • Races- The students always enjoy doing this. First, get the students into two or three teams. Have the first person of each team come to the board. Give the students a math fact and have them solve it on the board. The first person who solves the problem correctly gets a point for their team.
  • Buzzer Math- Get the students into two teams. Give the first person in each team a math fact. The first person to hit the buzzer and answer the fact correctly gets a point for their team. It is easy, simple, and fun!

As you can tell, all of these games are reinforcing math facts. What I love most about this is that the students don’t even realize what we are doing. They just enjoy playing a game. It is a win-win for everyone!

If you want to see other teaching ideas, click here.