Do your students LOVE learning math facts?
I know for own daughter, it was like pulling teeth. To this day, she still does not know her basic facts by rote memory (she is 24 for the record). I always regret not working on them more because it really is a skill that comes in handy regularly and doesn’t require busting out a phone calculator.
As a solution for your students, you can use Math Poke-a-Fact Cards!
It is pretty low-tech and the only supplies students need are the cards and a pencil.
For you to prep them, you will only need paper or Cardstock (colored is optional), scissors, and a standard hole punch.
So easy, you’ll wonder why you haven’t done this sooner.
Math Facts Made Easy
Here is a quick video tutorial for how to set up your Math Poke-a-Fact:
Prefer to read the transcript? I’ve got you covered too!
Transcript:
“Hi there! Charity Preston from Organized Classroom.
Today, we’re going to talk about a fun way to practice math facts.
That is a big complaint from a lot of primary teachers (and middle school teachers alike) about how to get those kids to know their facts.
Well, this is a fun way to do it.
You can find a free download for the product that I’m about to show you called Math Poke-a-fact below.
You will have a paper that looks something like this. It will actually have four of them along the way there. And I like to print mine off on colored card stock.
I just have regular colored paper, but colored card stock works much better if you plan on using them from year to year.
You are going to cut each one of the fact columns out.
Then simply hole punch right next to each one of the equal signs.
Once that is done, flip it over and on the backside of the card, write the answers to each of the problems in order.
So for example, on this one, the first one is four times one. On the back, you’ll write the number 4 next to the hole punch for that problem.
Also, this shows you why it’s better to use cardstock because students won’t be able to see through the paper if it is thicker.
That’s it for prepping!
If you optionally want to laminate your cards, that is always helpful for keeping them lasting longer too, but not required for using them.
Now, the students will partner up.
One student gets a pencil. He’s going to quiz the other student.
The second student sees the questions, but he doesn’t know which one the other student is going to pick for him to do.
The student who is quizzing will put his pencil tip ONLY right through the hole punch of the question he wants an answer for.
The first student can’t see the answer (only the question), and the second student can’t see the question (only the answer).
The first student gives and answer and the second student quickly says Yes or No. If it’s a no, they give the correct answer and quickly keep moving by repeating the process.
And then they can just go through and do the different ones. They could go in order straight down, or they could go out of order. That’s up to you in your classroom as to how that you would like them to use it.
It could be timed and they would have to answer everything correctly within a certain time frame – or just leave it as a casual early ender or center activity.
One final thing that I also like to do to put the four different operations on different colored paper so it’s easy to see which cards go together.
Then I put a hole right in the top corner of each card and use a binder ring to clip each set together so they don’t get lost.
You could also group them by colors to make separate packets for individual students.
This will be a fantastic parent night activity to do with your families as well – have them do the hole punching and writing the answers – and then taking them home for the students to work on.
I hope that you enjoyed Math Poke-a-Fact. Don’t forget to grab your free download below.
Have a great day! Thanks, bye.”
Math Tools Reminders
Of course, like any other math “tool” (in this case being the pencils), you’ll want to model correct behavior expectations with the pencils going through the hole punches (just the pencil point and not the whole thing), as well as not poking someone else with the pencil.
How else could you use this math resource in your classroom?
I would love to hear in the comments below!
~Charity
This post originally appeared at Organized Classroom.
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