I have heard so many teachers say that they don’t know where to fit math fact instruction into their day. But the thing is with students learning math facts, is that they need to practice every single day! So I thought I would share three easy ways on how to teach math facts daily.

How to Teach Math Facts

Math Meeting:

Math Meeting is short math review before you start your math regular lesson for the day. I gather my students on the carpet and we review concepts, or I briefly introduce new topics that they will learn in future lessons. We review numbers on a hundred’s chart, review place value concepts, and so on. 

 

 

This is a great time to do a math fact review. You can even do a “Fact of the Day” type of thing. Pick a math fact 1-20. And write it up on the board. Then have your students pick a strategy to solve it. Maybe some students solve the equation in a different way, this leads to great discussions and modeling! To learn more about the math fact strategies that I teach my students, check out this blog post here!

Fast Finishers: 

 

 

Using math fact games as fast finishers brings in some fun in math fact practice! Honestly, I knew I was doing something right when my students asked to play Math Fact Old Maid during inside recess!

Yes, they would rather play a game that helped them practice math facts than play with Legos and other fun toys! This is how to teach math facts with fast finishers. Set out games and activities that students can access easily. Then when they finish with an assignment early, they can play a game! Oh they love it! Plus I love seeing my students playing games together and building friendships. 

Here are a couple tips on having students play math fact games as fast finishers. Introduce the games and show students how to play. This way you won’t get a bunch of questions. I will usually introduce a few games at a time and then do little rotations for students to play each game. That way they have all tried the game, they know what they enjoy, and it gets them more excited to play them throughout the day!

Here are some of my students’ favorite math fact games to play:

Math Facts Old Maid

Math Facts Go Fish

Math Facts Don’t Eat Pete

Math Facts Memory Match

For other math fact games, check out this blog post: Three Easy To Make Math Fact Games

Sometimes I don’t feel like printing, cutting, and laminating all the things, so I set out Math Fact Riddles for students to solve.

 

 

Math Fact Center:

However, some students don’t get a lot of fast finisher time. And we know they need to practice math facts every day. That is why for another idea on how to teach math facts daily is to incorporate them into your centers! You can have one of your centers be a “Math Facts Center.” Students can play a math fact game, do a math fact riddle, or get on a computer program that allows them to practice math facts.

 

 

A second option with math fact centers is to designate 10-15 minutes of your day when students choose a different math fact center. Maybe one could be a game center, one could be a strategies center, one could be a center where they are timed and try to pass off facts, one could be practicing on a computer program. The options are endless! Students just go to one center per day, but make it through all of them throughout the week.

Task cards are a great activity for centers. Find my Math Fact Strategies here. Also, I have made all of my math fact strategies task cards into BOOM cards, check them out here.

 

 

I hope this blog post has given you plenty of ideas of how to teach math facts daily. It doesn’t have to take a lot of time. You can even incorporate math fact instruction into your regular math lesson, without taking any extra time. I made a video of my showing how I do this. Check out the video here.

As you can see, I have found a real passion in making math fact instruction fun and meaningful to students. I am sharing my secrets on how to make math facts fun in this FREE workbook for elementary teachers: The 7 Steps to Ensure Math Fact Fluency. Get your free copy here.