Successful Numeracy Teaching includes an effective mental maths program. Unfortunately many numeracy programs focus on drill and kill rote recall of facts rather than taking a strategy focus which results in poor results for many students. Even more alarming is the damage that this approach can do to confidence, self esteem and mindset.
Many mental maths programs are heavily weighted in rote and recall which causes math anxiety and a fixed mindset about learning maths. Students who experience this type of mental maths teaching rely on their memory to recall number facts rather than understanding. When the memory becomes overloaded then facts cannot be recalled which results in embarrassment or humiliation and the feeling that they are “Not A Maths Person.” Good Mental Maths programs should include a balance of:
- Explicit teaching of a range of strategies including Strategies for
- Addition & Subtraction
- Multiplication & Division
- Opportunity to practice and apply strategies
- Opportunity for automatic recall and fluency
Activities, Strategies & Printables For Teaching Mental Maths
Here are some great classroom ideas and activities for your maths classroom, click the pink links to find out more:
- This fun Muffin Tin Maths activity is excellent for your math rotations. Students can practice recall and build automatic recall for any operation at any level with this clever idea. Download the FREE ideas worksheet that goes with it for your next math lesson.
- Roll Dot & Write Missing Number Facts Activity is a fun way for young learners to build early addition facts to 12. It’s a great math game that extends subitizing / subitising skills into early addition by helping students visually partition numbers and join them together. Download a FREE Fact Fluency Dice Activities printable
- Transform Teaching Mental Maths from ‘Drill and Kill’ into Fact Fluency Fun for your kids with our Top 5 Mental Maths Tips! Turning Math Fear into FUNtastic Fluency!
- Mental Math Strategies Overview – A handy freebie listing a massive range of mental math strategies for addition, subtraction, division and multiplication (Coming Soon!)
- Written Strategies & Algorithms – Lattice Multiplication
- Doubles & Near Doubles -Extending repeated addition to doubles – Doubles Detectives
- Exploring Commutative Property of Addition – Turn Arounds
- Making numbers easier to manipulate in addition problems by rearranging the parts – Nice ‘Friendly’ Numbers
- Making mental addition easier by partitioning and making numbers compatible – Bridge numbers
- Counting on using a number line – Start big Count small
- Subitising/subitizing – Pre Mental Maths Skill seeing how many