Addition Fact Power

Our first graders are working hard at developing fact power which means knowing their addition facts for all numbers 0-10 automatically.  According to the Everyday Mathematics curriculum that we implement, automatically knowing basic number facts is as important to learning mathematics as knowing words by sight is to reading.  One way that you could support this goal at home, is to make addition flash cards with your student, starting with 0+0 all the way up to 10+10.  For instance, put 10+10 on one side of a note card and the answer 20 on the other side of the note card.  You could also make the addition facts into games such as go fish or memory by making separate cards for the fact and the answer (10+10 on one card and the answer 20 on a different card).  We are working hard on achieving fact power at school and this would be a fun and beneficial way to support your student at home as well!