If you’ve ever felt like your students just aren’t getting their math facts, you are SO not alone. Despite all the drills, flashcards, and practice pages, those facts vanish faster than a pencil the moment you need them. 

Here’s the good news: building math fact fluency doesn’t have to mean extra hours or tear-filled tests. With just 15 intentional minutes a day, you can help your students build fluency that sticks.

Here’s the math reality:

Many students memorize facts long enough to pass a quiz but can’t retrieve them when solving real problems. Timed tests and random drills create anxiety without deepening understanding. And when they move on to multiplication without a strong addition and subtraction foundation? It’s a confidence crash waiting to happen.

Sound familiar?

Why do student's need to know them?

Students need to know their addition and subtraction facts before starting 3rd grade because these facts form the foundation for more complex math skills, such as multiplication, division, and multi-step problem-solving. Without fluency in basic facts, students are more likely to struggle with higher-level concepts because their working memory is overwhelmed by simple calculations. Mastery of addition and subtraction facts allows students to focus on understanding new strategies and applying them effectively, setting them up for success in 3rd grade and beyond.

Here's what NOT to do

When helping students learn their addition and subtraction facts, parents and teachers should avoid relying solely on rote memorization or timed drills, especially if these cause stress or anxiety. These approaches can make math feel like a pressure-filled task rather than something meaningful or enjoyable.

Instead of cramming math facts into an already-packed schedule, try weaving fluency into your daily routine—in a way that’s low-prep for you and stress-free for your students. Let's focus on building understanding through games, visual models, and real-world connections.

🎯 That’s where my Basic Addition & Subtraction Fact Fluency: Path to Multiplication Bundle comes in.

This resource was designed specifically for teachers who need consistent, scaffolded fluency practice without reinventing the wheel each week. With just 15 minutes a day, your students can:

         ✅ Strengthen fact recall

         ✅ Build number sense

         ✅ Gain the confidence they need for multiplication success

How to Use It in 15 Minutes a Day

• Group Warm-Up: Start the day with one quick fluency activity. It sets the tone and maximizes focus.
• Math Centers: Use as a fast-finisher or targeted center for students who need extra support.
• Exit Ticket: Reinforce skills with a quick review before dismissal.

The key is consistency—short bursts of strategic practice add up to big results.

What does this look like?

Here's a look at what I do with my math students. I pull a mixed grade math group 4 days a week for 30 minutes. The size and who attends depends on who else needs to see the student. Last year, I had everyone on Thursday.  This is what that session looked like as the whole group needed to build fact fluency. 

1) Fact Progress Monitor both addition and subtraction on clip boards. All 6 would find a place to sit where they would do their best work. No one sat at the table as I used that if I had someone who did make a good choice the previous week. The group comes in, grabs their clip boards, sits, and then I start the timer. Four minutes go. Timer goes off. I go around and exchange pages. And we repeat it. They don't grade their work. I do. 

2) Math Centers: At the start of they year, I dictate what they do. The next 15 minutes can look like partner work, independent work, technology, work with me or completing a scoot. Those decisions are driven by both the Fact Fluency Data, exit ticket data, IEP goals, and their decisions from the previous day. 

Because of the number of kids I tend to have in this group, management is key. By the end of the semester, not only can this group run itself but they hold each other accountable for their actions.  This group like all my others also becomes very use to me asking them to reflect on what they need.  As with all my groups, I use Marzano's Student Check for Understanding and goal setting.

Most of the student's work like worksheet's are in their math binder. In here I keep, their fact practice work, their IEP goal work, and independent work. To make math stations or centers or rotations work, in a mild/moderate resource room where students are reading 2 years below grade level you have to have true independent work.  This may look like cut and color work or if a student is working a skill that has tons of words I might have to add it to our Google Classroom for them to access the reading pieces. The key is going lower than you think. 

I teach student's that when they get stuck either work through it and ask for help when I'm not teaching or make the page, find an independent page to do, and ask me later.  They learn this is not Starbucks, we have work to do, so don't waste your or my time in mess around. This is a life skill. This is a general education skill. Sitting and doing nothing is far from okay. It takes students time to work through this but they do get it. Set the bar high and they will get there. Just make sure to support.  

3) Exit Ticket's: This looks different day to day. Some days it's student responses collected during a whole group lesson, a game, some times it four problems from a worksheet, some times in their fluency data, or IEP goal work. I also ask student's for their input-Did you hit the target? What did you do well on? What needs work? Rate your self. One of my favorites is using the pretest to tell me if you already know the material and can I move you on to the next standard.

Everything you need to get started is included. 

Ready to make fact fluency one of the easiest wins of your math block?

 👉 Grab the bundle here and start your 15-minute routine tomorrow!

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Additional Math Blogposts:

• A Path to Ensuring Mastery in Addition and Subtraction for Math Success
• Thinking Outside the Box with Math

Do you happen to know how many standards students have to master to be able to solve basic multiplication and division equations?

I went looking and it’s more than 15!

I’m talking about place value, counting, and solving addition and subtraction facts fluently.

These skills are the foundations and need to be taught to mastery!

Do you need help getting your students to master place value or counting skills or addition and subtraction fluency?

If so, you're in luck! In this blog post, we will discuss how to teach these skills and ways to teach these concepts. 

The first way is drill and kill practice. This is a traditional approach that many teachers use. The second way is with place-value games. Games are a great way to engage students and help them learn in a fun way. Finally, the third way is to give students time to demonstrate mastery in a variety of different ways. 

Why Worry about it??

First–if you don't, who will!! Passing the buck doesn’t help anyone and when they get to 3rd grade your students will drown and the teacher who has them will give up.

Thank you for being part of my soap box.

Mastering multiplication and division requires a strong foundation in several basic mathematical skills, notably place value, counting, and addition & subtraction. Each of these skills plays a crucial role in understanding and performing multiplication and division effectively.

Place Value

In multiplication and division, recognizing the place value of digits allows one to:

Break Down Numbers: Multiplication and division often involve breaking down larger numbers into smaller, more manageable parts. For example, understanding that 234 is 200 + 30 + 4 allows for easier mental multiplication and division using distributive properties.

Align Numbers Properly: When multiplying or dividing multi-digit numbers, place value ensures that digits are aligned correctly, which is crucial for obtaining accurate results. Misalignment can lead to significant errors.

Counting

Think for a second, can you students count by 1s past 50 without starting at 1. Or can they skip count by 5s starting at 65. Or counting by 100s starting at 200?

Counting is a foundational skill that underpins many mathematical concepts, including multiplication and division.

Counting is one of those skills that starts in preschool and gets more complex as students move through the grades. But it is also a standard that we think students have mastered or understand and walk away from before there is data to show they can count. 

In Kindergarten, students are to count to 100 in both 1s and 10s. First grade, students are extending the counting sequence 120. Not to mention plus 10s or minus 10s. In Second grade students need to count by 100s and skip count by 5s, 10s, and 100s.

Students don't get counting or skip counting with calendar math. They need more. They need to count everything. Not just by 1s starting at zero or one but starting at 14 or 46 or 98. 

Do you have students that don't know what number comes after 100 or 110? 

You need this! 

In this product, you will find student worksheets to get students working on counting by 1s, 5s, 10s, and writing numbers passed 100. And like all my activities--progress monitoring to support interventions and the RTI process.

Understanding Multiples: Multiplication can be viewed as repeated addition. For instance, 4 x 3 can be thought of as 4 counted three times (4 + 4 + 4). Similarly, division involves understanding how many times a number can be subtracted from another number, essentially counting in reverse.

Skip Counting: Skip counting (counting by 2s, 3s, 4s, etc.) is a direct application of counting that helps in learning multiplication tables and understanding the concept of grouping in division.

Patterns Recognition: Counting aids in recognizing numerical patterns, which is essential for mastering multiplication tables and identifying factors and multiples.

Addition & Subtraction 

I started this blog post with a soapbox. It comes from listening to classroom teachers complain about students being fluent in their addition and subtraction facts. 

I think as a special education teacher, we forget just like classroom teachers that these skills have to be practiced first, then mastered, and then the fluency comes. Just like learning to read or ride a bike. 

Most state standards, like Common Core or your state standards--students have roughly 2 years to get these skills mastered and be fluent. 

The standards start in Kindergarten with working within 10. But mastery is within 5. First grade is working of within 20. Working fluently within 10. Second grade is working within 20 using mental strategies. And by the end of the year from memory all sums of two one-digit numbers. 

I talk a lot about mastery. Like a lot a lot. 

Merriam-Webster's Dictionary defines Mastery as "the possession or display of great skill or technique".

The standards don't define mastery. 

So, who does???

Well, you do, or your team or grade level or building level. 

But ... that also means you have to hold all students to that same standard or benchmark. 

My Addition, Subtraction, and Multiplication fluency products have what my building has agreed to. This means that students who are timed are held to the fluency benchmark. This means you can create interventions and support them in RTI.

This means you also need something more than drill and kill to build students' accuracy and independent practice. 

These three products will help give students more independent practice, and more differentiated practice within small target groups without making it harder for you to support them.

Addition and subtraction are the building blocks of multiplication and division:

In second grade there is a tiny standard that where multiplication starts. It's 2.OA.C--students start to learn about arrays and start using skip counting to solve multiplication facts of 2s, 5s, and 10s. This set of activities will help you build students capacity in using games and number talks.  

Foundation of Multiplication: Multiplication is essentially repeated addition. For example, 5 x 4 can be seen as adding 5 four times (5 + 5 + 5 + 5). A solid grasp of addition makes this concept more intuitive.

Division as Repeated Subtraction: Division can be conceptualized as repeated subtraction. For example, 20 divided by 4 can be understood by subtracting 4 from 20 repeatedly until reaching zero, counting the number of subtractions made.

Handling Remainders: Division often results in remainders. Proficiency in subtraction is necessary to understand and calculate what is left over after dividing.

Interconnectedness of Skills

The interconnectedness of place value, counting, and addition & subtraction with multiplication and division highlights the importance of these basic skills. Mastering them provides a strong mathematical foundation, enabling students to tackle more complex problems with confidence. Understanding place value ensures accurate computation, counting fosters an intuitive grasp of numerical relationships, and addition & subtraction form the operational basis for both multiplication and division.

BUNDLE

Want it all???
I have you covered with a growing bundle. All these products are bundled together in my store, so you can start the year off strong and build those necessary skills to ensure your students master all the skills they need to understand multiplication.

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