Beat Yourself Down

The Ministry is migrating nzmaths content to Tāhurangi.           
Relevant and up-to-date teaching resources are being moved to Tāhūrangi (tahurangi.education.govt.nz). 
When all identified resources have been successfully moved, this website will close. We expect this to be in June 2024. 
e-ako maths, e-ako Pāngarau, and e-ako PLD 360 will continue to be available. 

For more information visit https://tahurangi.education.govt.nz/updates-to-nzmaths

Purpose

This is a level 2 number activity from the Figure It Out series. It relates to Stage 5 of the Number Framework.

Achievement Objectives
NA2-3: Know the basic addition and subtraction facts.
Student Activity

 

Click on the image to enlarge it. Click again to close. Download PDF (381 KB)

Specific Learning Outcomes

know addition facts

know subtraction facts

Required Resource Materials

FIO, Level 3, Basic Facts, Animal Antics, pages 2-3

stopwatch

Activity

Timed self-testing activities are an excellent way for students to work out which facts they can recall with speed and which they cannot. Students should record the facts that they do not know for future learning.
The following strategies can help students learn addition facts:

• Do you know another fact close to this one (the unknown)? For example, you don’t know 4 + 7, but you do know 4 + 4. How could you get from (known fact) to find the answer to (unknown fact)?

• Picture what the numbers look like in tens frames.Can you make a full 10, with some over? Draw a picture of this in your book.

tens frames.

• What other new facts will you be able to work out from (unknown fact)? For example, 4 + 7 = 11, so 5 + 7 = 12, 4 + 8 = 12, 3 + 7 = 10, 4 + 6 = 10, and 11 – 4 = 7, 11 – 7 = 4, etc.

Encourage students to keep records of the number of correct answers and the time spent on each section. This encourages self-competition and can motivate students to learn and rapidly recall the basic facts. Results can then be graphed. (This connects to the statistics strand.)
The activity needs a timed penalty for each error, otherwise there is no incentive for the student to get the correct answer.
A possible penalty system could be:
table. Students can highlight and record those facts they have incorrect and focus on learning these.
A class collection of sheets of calculations focusing on one particular family of facts could be developed as in the example for the seven times table below.

family of facts.
The sheets could be used in the following way:

• Students (and possibly the teacher) have a timed start and sprint through the facts sheet, writing their answers in the spaces provided.

• As the students finish, their time is called out, they record it, and then they turn the sheet over and continue quietly with another task until the cut-off time. This could be 5 minutes or whatever is appropriate for the speed of students in the class.

• Students use a copy of the same sheet for 3 consecutive days and observe their improvements.

• Students can concentrate on a particular multiplication table and present the facts in various forms.

Answers to Activity

answers.

Attachments
Add to plan

Log in or register to create plans from your planning space that include this resource.


Level Two