I am a firm believer that students cannot practice addition and subtraction facts too much. These math facts need to be reinforced on a daily basis so students can be successful with math in the upper grades and throughout life.
Fact sheets are great, but it is also important for primary grade children to play games to reinforce math addition and subtraction facts. For this reason, some of my colleagues and I always had “Math Stations or Rotations” every Friday for about an hour in the afternoon. Students rotated through 4 15 minute stations with a flexible differentiated group of students to work on skills with which they needed to reinforce.
Math facts were always included because you can’t stress them enough. However, other skills were determined through observation of students while working on math activities or results of math assessments. We made note of which students needed reinforcement of various skills and used the games, worksheets, created activities, activities from the math program and some that we found on websites etc. to use during math rotations or stations.
The Friday Rotation games were then placed in baskets on the “Math Shelf” for use during Quiet Time, Free Choice Time or anytime a student was finished all their "have to" work during math.
These rotations were a great way to reinforce math skills with which students needed to work. It was also a great way to enrich those students who were beyond a first grade math level.
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