Math fluency practice is essential in every classroom. If you teach K-2, you’re most likely focusing on learning those addition and subtraction facts. And if you teach 3rd-5th, you’re probably focusing on multiplication and division facts. Regardless, it’s crucial that we implement quality math fluency practice regularly.
In this post, we’re going to focus on:
- 3 reasons math fluency practice is important
- How to embed fluency practice activities into your week
- The best games & activities to implement (especially for addition & subtraction facts)
3 Reasons Math Fluency Practice is Important
Reason 1: Saves mental energy
When tackling more difficult problems, students don’t have to spend too much energy on basic facts. We want students to be able to solve more difficult problems without getting too overwhelmed and frustrated.
Reason 2: Students can solve more difficult problems quicker
Knowing math facts will save your students so much time when they’ve encountered multi-step problems. They’ll be able to spend more time focused on the math that requires more effort
Reason 3: Real-world application
When students are fluent in their math facts, they can apply these to real-world situations easily. This means that when given real-world scenarios, students will be able to easily apply their math fact fluency!
Embedding Fact Fluency Into Your Week
How do you embed math fluency practice in your classroom? One of my favorite traditions in my classroom is Fact Fluency Friday! This is a dedicated time on Fridays where we pull out all of our favorite no-prep fact fluency games and just PLAY! You can read more about Fact Fluency Friday in this post!
It’s important to BUILD fact fluency with practice activities – not straight memorization of facts. A single page full of math facts for students to solve in 1-minute is not going to help them build fluency. On the contrary, it may overwhelm them, frustrate them, lead them to give up, or destroy their confidence.
That’s exactly why I love Fact Fluency Friday… it’s time spent building math fact fluency with repetition through games! So what games and activities can you use?
3 Favorite Math Fluency Games
There are tons of options for math fluency practice games and activities, but my favorites are always the low-prep options!
First, these print and play addition and subtraction fact fluency games are always a hit! These one-page games allow your students to engage in meaningful math fluency practice without you needing to take home a stack of activities to cut and laminate!
Second, these addition fact fluency games are another one of my favorites because they are designed to help students practice three different strategies. This includes doubles & doubles plus one, ways to make 10, and bridge to ten activities.
Finally, these subtraction fact fluency games mirror the addition fact fluency games. Students use these games to practice subtracting with doubles, counting up and counting back, and friends of 10!
