Flashcard Junction: Teach Key Math Facts

Flashcards are a traditional and effective method for practicing math facts, but with a little ingenuity they can also be fun! We've provided you with a printable page of addition and subtraction flashcards for your second grader: stick some oak tag in your printer, cut out the individual cards and you are ready to rock and roll. But keep in mind that a child who is struggling with learning the basic facts should never be asked to “study this whole set of flashcards until you know them.” It is simply too overwhelming. So, what's the best way to use these flashcards with your child? Here's a guide:

Click here for addition flashcards

Click here for subtraction flashcards

Success Tips:

• Initially, work on addition facts through ten. When your child is quick and confident with those facts, introduce the subtraction facts through ten. Then move to addition facts between ten and twenty, and finally the subtraction facts through twenty.
• If your child already has a base of knowledge, start there and proceed slowly – never adding more than ten new cards at a time, and being certain to mix the new with the old. For example, let’s say your second grader knows his addition facts through 6 very well, but stumbles after that. Show her the 7 fact cards (1 + 7, 7 + 2, etc.), discuss them, mix them up with the facts she has mastered, and when the “new” answers become automatic (see process that follows), add the 8 fact cards.

Process

• Encourage your child to practice the flashcards independently (with only a few new ones added) and to let you know when he thinks he’s a FACT MASTER.
• Try to make the FACT MASTER check pleasant and non-threatening. Show her one fact; if she answers correctly within a second or two, she puts the card in her pile. If her answer is incorrect or too “late,” put the card in your pile. Compare size of piles at end of game. Offer encouragement if she’s not quite there yet, or whoop and holler if she’s ready to add more facts to her study pile.

Culminating Activity:

• When your child is proficient enough (at whatever level she’s working on) to be called a FACT MASTER... celebrate! Make a large notice (with bright markers) for the refrigerator that says, for example, “Zoe is a subtraction FACT MASTER through twelve." When Zoe nails thirteen, make a new sign and post it. And while you’re at it, give yourself a pat on the back. You deserve it.