Math Learning Tips for Learning Basic Facts

April 23, 2010

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I wanted to share a few suggestions for learning basic addition and subtraction facts. These activities will help your student develop different strategies for quickly solving basic facts. When doing these activities it’s important for your student to look carefully at the numbers first, and then decide on a strategy.

Learning about addends of 1, 2 or 3: counting on may be fastest and most efficient.
Learning about addends of 9: think of 9 as 10 -1. If the fact is 9+6, then add 10+6 and subtract 1.
Learning about addends of 8: think of 8 as 10-2.
Learning about addends of 5, 6 or 7: look at the other addend and consider how much is needed to get to the landmark number ten. For example, 7+4. Think of 4 as 3+1. 7+3=10; add 1 more to equal 11.
Learning about doubles:Most kids memorize these without realizing it! So when you ask them 7+7 they will immediately know 14.
Learning about doubles plus one or doubles minus one: if two addends are one or two apart, double the smaller number and add one or two more. For example, 6+7 is the same as 6+6+1. Does your child see how this fact is similar to a doubles fact?