From: Julie Smith <jls@rlasd.k12.pa.us>
To: Teacher2Teacher Public Discussion
Date: 2000100909:22:54
Subject: Re: fact families- grade 1

I teach 2nd grade and found that my students had difficulty
understanding fact families this year.  The following are some
activities that helped.

- Draw a "house" (a square and a triangle (the "attic") on top, draw a
vertical line through the square to make 2 "rooms") and write the
larger number in the "attic" (ex. 6) and the 2 smaller parts in the
"rooms" (ex. 2, 4).  Have children think of these numbers as living
together.
	Then show that 6 - 4 = whichever number also lives in this same
house, 2.  
	Children can draw several houses to make a neighborhood of fact
families.

- I've also seen triangles used.  The numbers in the fact family (2,
4, 6) are written in the corners of the triangles.  Then you can cover
up one corner and children say which number is missing.

- I gave each of my students a sentence strip with a fact written on
it.  Without talking, they had to walk around the room and find the
other children who had facts in their family.  Once they found their
family, the family sat down.  Once all family "members" had been
located, we checked each other.

Hope these help!

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