Parent Support for Mastering Basic Facts
(If a basic fact can be recalled in about 3 seconds or less it is mastered)
Keep practice sessions short, purposeful and cumulative so skills are built upon logically.
Some of the most common strategies for basic fact mastery include:
1. Skip Counting – counting by 2s, 5s, 10s, etc. Skip counting is fun to do and children begin to hear patterns in numbers. When paired with a chart (such as Figure 1), they can even begin to see those patterns. For instance, when skip counting by 10s, they may notice that all the numbers end in zero!
2. Make 10 – A useful way for children to think about numbers is in relationship to 10, which can serve as a mental anchor for them. For instance, when children are learning the math fact 14 – 6 = 8, they don’t need to subtract 6 all at once. Instead, they can first take away 4 from 14 to make 10 and then take away 2 more from 10 to equal 8.
3. Doubles and Near Doubles – Many children are already familiar with doubles facts. They know that 3 + 3 = 6, for instance. They can draw upon their knowledge of doubles and simply count one more to figure out near doubles such as 3 + 4 = 7 (illustrated in Figure 2).
4. Nines – Multiplying by 10 is often clear even for young children. Because nine is so close to 10, 9 facts are fairly straightforward to work out mentally. For instance, if a child knows that 10 x 7 = 70, they can take away one 7 to figure out that 9 x 7 = 63. Nines also have lots of patterns to explore together.
5. Commutative Property – This is the mathematical way to say, “you can add or multiply numbers in any order and you get the same answer.” Based on this property, if your child knows 3 + 2 = 5, then he can solve 2 + 3 = 5 (illustrated in Figure 3). Taking this approach cuts the number of addition and multiplication facts in half!
6. Use Fact Families – Children know that addition facts are connected to subtraction facts, and multiplication facts are to division facts. Therefore, it is helpful if they learn their basic facts as part of “fact families.” For instance, an addition and subtraction fact family might include 7 + 8 = 15 as well as 15 – 8 = 7. Using this approach, again, cuts the number of math facts in half.
7. Make it Real – Play math games and point out math relationships in real life. For instance, while shopping or playing find opportunities to discuss ways to figure out maths problems efficiently, e.g. If there are 6 parked cars, ask how many tyres there would be. Encourage or model the use of 4+4+4+4+4+4= 24, 6 x 4 = 24, or 6 x 2 x 2= 24, rather than counting on by one.
Resources to support Basic Fact Mastery:
●Visit to practise basic facts for the NZ curriculum at stages 2 through to 8.
●Go to
●Make and use flash cards and use them to play games like memory, or snap
●Visit and do some maths thinking while helping someone to eat
●Use cheat sheets to aid memory
●Play games at
●Reinforce addition and subtraction through card games e.g. Texas Hold ‘em and Monopoly
●Solve Sudoku and Kakuro Puzzles
●Practise the basic fact speed tests in chunks. To build confidence, practise one section at a time until it’s known