Basic Facts Assessment- FROM Last week!

Oops, this did not publish last Wednesday.  Better late than never.

The children brought home a basic facts assessment they did last week.

If it looks like a rainbow, the kids were testing out a strategy.  We don't use the same strategy for all facts.  If the child knows their facts well, they started at the top left corner and answered the questions down the row.  HOWEVER, we discussed that if we come across a fact we don't know....we did not want to get struck.   (note parents: we should not be giving kids questions to practice if they do not have a strategy to solve it.  Practice the facts they know a strategy for.  We do not want kids practicing adding on large numbers).

This is a common test taking skill.  When stuck, kids practiced looking for facts groups they KNOW and are confident with.  Most kids first looked for adding 0 facts.  ie.  0+4=, or 8+0=.  They identified (by colouring them a particular colour) and then solved all of these facts. Then they thought of another strategy family they knew well like: COUNTING ON strategy.  It is only efficient to count on 1 or 2, so kids coloured +1 and +2 facts a different colour. ie. 5+2=, 1+7=

Some kids just coloured everything pretty randomly, but they begun to think about looking for facts in fact strategy families.....
others include:
-doubles,
-doubles +1. (or neighbour numbers)
-make 10 facts (also known as friendly facts 3+7, or 8+2)
-add 9 facts

After doing the ones they knew well, kids could see which facts they didn't know.  Kids looked at their tests, and identified in small groups what strategies they need to work on next.

Many kids found adding 7 and 8 questions hard, so today we looked at how MAKE TEN facts can help.

If we know 7+3=10 ...then 7+4=11.   because the four can be decomposed to make 3 and 1     7+(3+1)

We also explored open ended math questions where we could apply our basic facts:

TODAY, we looked at strategies for subtraction word problems.  We looked for key phrases to help use decide if it was an addition or subtraction question.   Ie.  How many left?  

Parsa used "think addition to solve subtraction" as a strategy.

Anhad used a numberline strategy

Nowellia used a regrouping strategy

We had a great time doing our felt art with Leah.  Our school art is going to be beautiful. Ask your child what they worked on.