Math During the Summer

Multiplication Facts That Stick

This summer I have been using Kate Snow’s Math Facts That Stick series with my two boys. She has created four math books that focus on improving addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts. What I like about her books are that the lessons are short, but effective. They take between 15-20 minutes. Sometimes we think longer math lessons are better. I disagree. These short lessons have helped my boys with remembering their math facts, and have improved their mental math abilities. The key to remembering math facts is not only memorizing them, although that does help a lot, but utilizing strategies to help mentally add or multiply numbers. This is not a curriculum, but if your child needs more practice, this series can be used in addition to your math curriculum.

Playing a math game from Multiplication FactsThat Stick

Addition Facts That Stick

This book covers skills such as adding one and two to another number, pairs that make ten, and adding nines and eights. There are six weeks of lesson plans and the format is simple. First, I use a tens frame to teach the concept for the week. Next, we play the game for the rest of the week where my son practices the skill. Lastly, there is a math worksheet with about twenty-four problems to solve. The rest of the week we play the game each day and do a math worksheet. It’s so simple and it works! My kids think the games are fun and ask if we can play one more time.

Tens frame from Addition Facts That Stick

The amount of materials needed for the games is minimal, but some preparation is required. The games and math worksheets need to be photocopied. I would recommend purchasing dice, counting cubes and a deck of cards.

A game for adding eights from Addition Facts That Stick

Multiplication Facts That Stick

The format for Multiplication Facts That Stick is almost the same as Addition Facts That Stick. There are some differences though. There are ten weeks of lessons and not six weeks. Besides covering multiplication facts under 100, other skills, such as using x5 facts to help compute x6 facts and using x10 facts to help with x5 facts, are included. There is a practice time for each lesson where we review our multiplication facts using a dot array. Next, we play a game. There are five games for each day of the week that are repeated each week. We learned how to play each game during week one. The subsequent weeks have the same games, but they are adjusted for learning different multiplication facts.

Dot array from Multiplication Facts That Stick

There is more photocopying since there are five games and ten worksheets for each week. There's also a weekly 100 multiplication facts chart that your child fills out at the end of the week. It shows their progress as they learn more and more facts.

Final Thoughts

I haven’t used Subtraction Facts That Stick or Division Facts That Stick, but I plan on using them further down the road. Any parent knows that children learn best by playing games. I love how each lesson has a game, and that my children are having fun while they learn. If you’re looking for a fun, short and effective way to strengthen math facts, then this is a great way to do math during the summer. Check out Kate Snow’s website for even more ideas and resources.