How and When to Teach a Child Math Facts

 When to Teach a Child Math Facts Most two-year-olds can recite the numbers one through ten, but just few of them understand that the name of a number can refer to the number of items in a set: five cars, three teddy bears, two flowers. Math can only be mastered by acquiring basic understanding, not by memorizing the math facts. In other words, if your child can count and understand: Quantity Number recognition Number meaning  Operations ...then he is ready to learn math facts. There are the addition math facts 3+4=7, subtraction math facts 5-1=4, multiplication math facts 5x4=20 and division math fact 40/8=5. How to Teach a Child Math Facts  Here are some strategies that can help your child master basic facts: 1. Skip Counting - counting by 2s (2,4,6,8,10), 3s (3,6,9...) 2. Make 10 3. Doubles 4+4=8 4. Near doubles  4+5=9 5.Commutative Property 2+6=8  6+2=8 6. Fact Families - addition/subtraction fact families and multiplication/division fact familie
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How to Use Bingo Cards in Different Ways

I have been playing Bingo with my students for ages. I wrote about ways we use Bingo cards in my older posts Bingo with Shapes and Bingo Numbers  to 100.    We love to play Bingo at home as well. Since I have four and six year old kiddos, we have been playing bingo entirely in a traditional way so far. I didn't even think about what and how could we use this game in other ways.   I thought that it is far more than enough for my preschoolers to describe shapes and master the three languages they are speaking. We simply hand out one Bingo card to everyone. The caller pulls out one image, describes it and shows it to the others. The participants place something (pebbles, coins, beans) on the called image if it is on their cards.  The aim of this game is to be the first  player who marks all the images on your card to get BINGO.  Such a great thing happened today. My kiddos made up two new ways to play with bingo cards. It happened so naturally, while they wer
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2D Shapes Flip Book

I love flip books because  they make learning fun! My students enjoy creating them, but also love to read them over and over again. The best of all, there is no use of costly colored ink. Just print the black&white pages and you are ready to go! Kiddos begin by the cutting out the pages...anything that involves cutting is fun, isn't it?  Color, read, trace and write each shape... Cut out the letters... Paste the correct letter into each box... And voila students are ready to staple their flip books. Included in this resource: triangle, rectangle, square, circle, star, heart, crescent, oval, pentagon, hexagon, heptagon, octagon, rhombus, trapezoid. Need other flip books? Check out my Flip Books Post.
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I Spy Shapes...

Games like I spy... keep our mind young and active. This game is great for working on visual discrimination, counting and expanding vocabulary. Note: Recently, I decided to create an I Spy Shapes game to add to my collection of shape printables.   Scroll to the bottom of this post to see all of my Shape packets. I have also decided to create a FREE I Spy Game collection. Already have a Free Printable I spy School Supplies Packet. Pin this page or follow my blog and check back often to find out  what I've added. With my I Spy packets you can easily tailor the activity to your child's interests, level and ages. This printable pack includes 4 different I Spy Shapes pages where kids have to find, name and/or count funny colorful shapes and write down the number of objects they find.  Here are a few of the pages from the I Spy Shapes packet in action: If you don't know how to play I Spy...game and/or you are like me an I spy...game fan, you ca
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