Can your students add three numbers together easily?
Do they apply mental math strategies to help them reach the answer quickly and accurately?
Do they have fact fluency?
What is Fact Fluency?
Fact fluency is more than the ability to recall the answers to basic math facts automatically and without hesitation. It also requires students to be flexible with their thinking.
While number sense and understanding of basic facts can be practiced with simple recall or fast math worksheets, fact fluency requires more. It’s about accuracy, efficiency, and flexibility. Students need to be flexible enough to use different strategies to answer different types of problems.
Practicing fact fluency isn’t just writing down answers to basic facts on worksheets. Using mental math, discussing the “why” of problem-solving, and playing games are all ways to improve fact fluency.
If you’re looking for a fun way for your students to improve their fact fluency, you’re going to love these twelve FREE games.
The Games
You’ll find three sets of game styles in this free pack.
The first set of four games works like this:
Using a paper clip, player 1 spins the spinner on the game board, writes the equation made on the recording sheet and colors the answer to the equation on the game board.
Player 2 has a turn and uses a different color to mark their answer.
Play continues with players spinning to make an equation, recording equations, and coloring answers until one player is unable to color in an answer for three turns in a row.
The winner is the player who has the most answers colored in a row at the end of the game.
The next set of games works very much like bump games.
Playing bump games the traditional way involves player one putting a counter on the answer. If player two also has the same answer, he or she takes player one’s counter off and replaces it with their own. The only way to ensure your counter is safe and you have ‘won’ that answer is to lock it in place with another counter on top of your first.
These games have a bit of a twist.
Try these simple steps to get started with the tracing spinner games:
Player 1 spins the spinner on the game board and writes the equation made on the recording sheet. They then trace around the answer to the equation on the game board.
Player 2 has their turn. They spin the spinner, record the equation and trace the answer.
Now, this is where the game is similar to a bump game.
If player 2 gets the same answer, they color in the box with the answer on the game board and claim it for their own. They’ve won that answer by locking it in place!
Play continues with players spinning to make an equation, recording equations, and tracing/coloring answers. The first player to have eight books colored in the game above is the winner.
The last set of games are my favorites. They require students to think ahead and check whether they can color the answer before they trace around the addends or minuend and subtrahend.
With these tracing games, your students will practice fact fluency with these simple steps:
1. First, player 1 chooses two objects on the page and traces around them, writes the equation made on the recording sheet and colors the answer on the game sheet.
2. Next, player 2 does the same.
3. Play continues. If a player chooses a number that a player has already traced to use as an addend or subtrahend, then the player may color in that object.
The game ends when the remaining answers are not possible/there are no addends/subtrahends remaining. Players count up the raindrops in this game and whoever has colored the most is the winner.
Grab a Free Set
With 12 differentiated games, you’ll have your learners working hard to not just memorize facts but to understand how addition and subtraction work!
Love more fact fluency games for your classroom?
Grab the set of monthly fact fluency games from our store HERE or click the picture below. You can also get it from our TPT store HERE.
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