Subtraction Fact Fluency Freebie

How do you keep track of your students' fact fluency? In my 2nd grade intervention classroom, progress monitoring fluency for my math students is a major goal. So, I decided to make it fun.. like a journey..or a quest! For our addition facts, we journey through Oz as we learn each set of facts.  You can read more about that adventure and grab the program freebie in this previous post. The kids enjoyed it so much that I decided to add in a Peter Pan/Neverland theme for subtraction!

I hang up a jumbo pocket chart to hold the character cards and student name pieces. The students' names are written on die cut yellow stars. When they have achieved their goal, it gives the effect of a pictograph of names. You can see a glimpse of the set up (without the names) in this photo from an Instagram post last year. 

As soon as we introduce subtraction, I reveal the first character goal and post the character card and goal on the pocket chart. I tell the kiddos that if they meet the goal that they will earn the character and a matching treat. The character cards look like this:

All week long (and longer if needed to achieve their goal), we practice our math facts. I like to use the free subtraction fact sheets found {HERE} at www.math-drills.com. Scroll down to number 8 and select horizontally arranged subtraction questions. Then, print off an entire sheet of individual fact practice. Copy the sheet for your students, and then cut them into 4 days worth of practice strips. Easy Peasy Mac-n-Cheesy!

I set different goals for students. Often my tier 3 students are just working on getting correct differences while my tier 2 students may be more focused on correct differences in a given amount of time. If their goal is achieved, they receive the treat for their character and a little certificate in a Ziploc baggie. They take them home to share their accomplishment with their families. It is an easy and relatively inexpensive way to celebrate their work and communicate their progress to their parents. 

As you can see, I updated the font! :)

You can grab the whole program as a freebie {HERE} in this Dropbox link! 

I hope you will find these helpful! :)

Addition Fact Fluency Freebie

How do you keep track of your students' fact fluency? In my 2nd grade intervention classroom, progress monitoring fluency for my math students is a major goal. So, I decided to make it fun.. like a journey..or a quest! For our addition facts, we journey through Oz as we learn each set of facts.  

During preplanning I hang up a jumbo pocket chart to hold the character cards and student name pieces. The students' names are written on pieces of the yellow brick road. When they have achieved their goal, it gives the effect of a horizontal bar graph of names. You can see a glimpse of the set up (without the names) in this photo from last year's room reveal. 

Beginning the first week of school, I reveal the first character goal and post the character card and goal on the pocket chart. I tell the kiddos that if they meet the goal that they will earn the character and a matching treat. The character cards look like this:

All week long (and longer if needed to achieve their goal), we practice our math facts. I like to use the free addition fact sheets found {HERE} at www.math-drills.com. Scroll down to number 9 and select single digit addition questions with focus digits. Then, print off an entire sheet of individual fact practice. Copy the sheet for your students, and then cut them into 4 days worth of practice strips. Easy Peasy Mac-n-Cheesy!

I set different goals for students. Often my tier 3 students are just working on getting correct sums while my tier 2 students may be more focused on correct sums in a given amount of time. If their goal is achieved, they receive the treat for their character and a little certificate in a Ziploc baggie. They take them home to share their accomplishment with their families. It is an easy and relatively inexpensive way to celebrate their work and communicate their progress to their parents. 

Here is a quick glimpse at the suggested treat list and little certificates that they can earn. 

You can grab the whole program as a freebie {HERE} in this Dropbox link! If you like this set, stay tuned, or follow my blog. I hope to post my Peter Pan themed subtraction set next. :)

Doubles Facts Freebie

We are kicking off our study of addition fact strategies this week! I am using this little poem/chant to help my RtI students remember their doubles facts. I made this anchor chart to display in class as we recite the poem together. We are going to add in hand motions for each fact, too. The more visual and hands-on I can make their math instruction, the better, right? :)

We will also add this printable copy to our interactive notebook. This freebie includes a color and b/w version. I hope it will be helpful to your sweeties, too. Click {HERE} to download your copy.

Hope your year is off to a great start!

Touch Math Number Posters Freebie

I have the privilege and challenge of teaching 2nd grade RtI students. With very few exceptions, fact fluency is extremely difficult for them. Particularly when students have been identified as having a low IQ or being a "slow learner", automaticity is not so automatic. Therefore, we have implemented Touch Math as one of our research-based interventions. I love this method for a few reasons. 

1. Many of my students are embarrassed about adding or subtracting on their fingers when other students' pencils are just flowing across the page. This method eliminates the need for finger counting.
2. The students learn to associate the value of a number with it's numeral. The 2 has two dots. They reinforce that connection every time they add or subtract.
3. This strategy works for addition, subtraction, multi-digit addition/subtraction, repeated addition/subtraction, and column addition. These struggling students can have one go-to strategy for all of their 2nd grade computation standards.

You can find out more about Touch Math {here}.

I had a set of touch number posters, but I was unhappy with them for two reasons. First of all, they didn't match my room decor, and I am all about things being "matchy matchy". Secondly, I do not agree with the way Touch Math has students tap on the number four. Their four looks like this:

That method works until a student encounters a font that prints a four like this:   4. Then, what should they do?  So, I switched up the touch dots on a four so that it will work for either style. Other than that, these posters follow the prescribed Touch Math method. 

You can grab your own set of these posters by clicking {HERE}. I hope that they will be useful to you! Do you use Touch Math? What do you think of it?