Students at St Columba Anglican School develop their maths facts skills through robust and rich tasks in the classroom, which enable them to develop strategies for solving problems and recall facts. For example, when posed with 19+7, our younger students are more likely to look for strategies such as 20+6 to solve this. It is vital that students understand where the facts come from and how they work. This is what we aim to develop in our classrooms.
Having said that, once students have an understanding of number sense and how numbers work, having an automatic recall can make it easier for students to work with more complicated problems or numbers, and identify patterns.
This term, students will be having our bi-annual Fact-a-Thon in Week 6, where they will participate in engaging activities to help develop some of these facts. Additionally, you may also notice your student asking you to help them with facts (including reading the time!) or see more ‘facts’ in their homework. Students are selecting fact goals for themselves this term and are busily working to develop these skills over the course of the term, culminating in our fun fact day on Friday, 12 November.
There are some skills that simply need practice – reading an analog clock, friends of 10, skip counting, working with money, multiplication facts for older grades – and we are encouraging students to have a goal and work toward achieving it during this Fact-a-Thon term!