Learning Tips

8 Quick Keys to Memorizing Math Facts

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Got a student in school? Nearly any grade, except possibly kindergarten? How well does your learner know their basic math facts? Here’s what they should know by age:

Grades 1-2: Memorize addition and subtraction facts. By the end of grade 2, should know all 100 combinations through 9 + 9 and 18 – 9. Should be able to solve 100 problems in 5 minutes.

Grades 3-5: Memorize multiplication and division facts. By the end of grade 5, should know all 100 combinations through 9 x 9 and 81 divided by 9. Should be able to solve 100 multiplication problems in 5 minutes by end grade 4, and should be able to solve 100 division problems in 5 minutes by end grade 5.

Grades 6 and up: Should be fluent in all four operations, able to switch between operations, and able to instantly name the inverse of any given math problem. Should recognize different formats for multiplication ( times sign, dot, no sign at all) and division (division sign, long division sign, fraction bar).

Why is it so important?

If students can solve the 100 facts in the given operation within the 5 minute time frame, they are solving each one in approximately 3 seconds. More complex problems (like long division) are actually made of smaller math facts in series. For example ( a simple example at that), the problem 308 divided by 20 takes at least 8 math facts to solve. Each step in the process is a math fact. 8 x 3 is 24 seconds to solve the problem. The entire 25-problem assignment would take about 10 minutes.

Now revisit that math if your student is three times slower with the math facts. Each fact takes 9 seconds instead of 3. Each problem would take over a minute, and the assignment would take over half an hour. I think it’s a good bet that EVERYONE would rather be done with math in 10 minutes than in a half an hour! The calculus just gets worse from there for students who are even slower with math facts, or worse yet, don’t know them at all. Then we through in mistakes as well as time consumption.

So get them to memorize those math facts so they can be done with math in class, or maybe after a few minutes of homework. It’s worth the effort.

And here’s how to get the task done:

KEY 1: Motivate ’em! Share the math about how LONG they are spending on their math and let them conclude it would be better to memorize.

KEY 2: If the time motivation above does not work, add some artificial incentives: promise a valuable reward when they hit milestones, like doing all additions in 5 minutes. Be sure to follow through, and don’t stop until the job is done.

KEY 3: Many people find the task of memorizing 100 math facts for the operation (or 400 all together) daunting. They don’t realize they ALREADY KNOW many of them. Take a moment to find out which facts your student already knows, then subtract those from the to-do list. Chances are good there are only a handful of troublesome facts to work on in each operation.

KEY 4: Pick a fact or two and practice it for a week, all by itself. Say the math fact every time you do something common, like get in the car or open the refrigerator. Pretty soon, it will move over to that list of “accomplished”!

KEY 5: Use triangle flashcards for practice. These come in two sets – addition/subtraction and multiplication/division. The addition or multiplication answer is at the top of the triangle, and the other two corners have the addends or factors. Cover the top corner to answer the fact from memory. Cover one of the side corners to answer the companion subtraction or division fact.

KEY 6: Memorize the three numbers that go together to make the fact family: 3 + 4 = 7, so 3 and 4 and 7 are the numbers “in the family”.

KEY 7: Write troublesome math facts with their answers. Writing is another way to get information into the memory. Pretend they are spelling words, and write them down!

KEY 8: Memorize the “special” facts first, like additions that total 10, or the doubles. Look for other patterns, too. Learn to skip count for multiplication. Learn that 5 times an even number always leads to an answer ending in zero, while 5 times an odd number always has an answer ending in 5.

Give it the time and attention it needs, and kids will have the facts memorized in no time.

Need help with other troublesome math challenges? Check out the Quick Tips Math series over on Teachers Pay Teachers! You can find just the skill needed for review and practice, or you can let me know and I will create a Quick Tips to suit your need. And there’s a free sample: CLICK HERE. It’s got tip sheets for order of operations, divisibility rules, and much more – ten of them all together. Grab it today while supplies last!

Learning Tips, Spelling

Secrets for Spelling Success

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Spelling can be one of the most challenging parts of writing for many kids! And it’s frustrating – Students perceive that guidelines are presented as “spelling rules,” but there seem to be more exceptions than consistency. It’s no wonder some give up entirely!

If they are working digitally, they can simply use spellcheck, right? WRONG! First of all, it’s possible to misspell something so badly that spellcheck doesn’t recognize it. Secondly, spellcheck cannot catch errors of misusage, omitted words, inserted words, and so forth. We all need to develop basic skills with spelling and learn tools to make sure we get it right before others see it.

Like it or not, people judge based on spelling. If a document, note, memo, or report is riddled with spelling errors, the reader’s first thought of the writer is usually far from kind. The more professional the job, the better the spelling needs to be.

Success with spelling relies mostly on one thing – the ability to notice misspellings and take action to correct them. Teach the kids to use spellcheck when working on a computer, but also teach them to use a dictionary (online or otherwise), and practice spotting spelling mistakes. Once they are found, action can be taken to fix them.

Here are tips to improve spelling accuracy:

  • Read, and read, and read some more! Reading will help students build that intuitive recognition that kicks in when they make a spelling error. We usually find these mistakes by noticing when words do not “look right.”
  • Do word search puzzles. Again, recognizing when words are spelled correctly will help build that automatic cringe when words are misspelled.
  • Find words within words. Remember when you were a kid and the teacher wanted to occupy you on the day before the holiday break? She gave you a big word, like the holiday name or the month and challenged you to find as many smaller words as you could using just the letters in the given word or phrase. This one is easy to do – just pick words or phrases with lots of vowels and common consonants and you’re on your way! Make it into a contest, and you’ll have instand motivation. Play with your students or children, then when you go over the word lists, they will learn from the words you put on your list as well.
  • Do at least some writing with pen and paper. One thing I see more and more is students who are over-reliant on spellcheck. If you have them write the old-fashioned way, you can see how their spelling understandings are coming, and you can help them learn to proofread.
  • Teach phonics and word roots. In spite of the seemingly huge number of exceptions, English is a phonetic language, and the rules really do apply most of the time. Closer examination of the exceptions will reveal that the problematic words are primarily on those lists of very common words (the sight words), and also those that have their roots in other languages. That’s why the exceptions seem so common to kids – those sight words are needed in almost every writing task.
  • Be sure kids can spell sight words. The Dolch list, or whatever sight words list you want, can really help kids learn to spell. The Fry List is also excellent because the words are ranked in order of their frequency. Learn the first hundred or so, and you have a large chunk of the problematic words. As mentioned before, these words are frequently exceptions to the common rules. Think of words like “said” and “have” and then try to explain to a first grader why they are pronounced the way that they are! A better approach is to call these words “outlaws” or some other creative name that cues children that something unusual is happening.
  • Watch your own attitude. Kids are quick to pick up on the attitudes of the adults in their lives. If you consider yourself a good speller, it will show. If you struggle with spelling, what are YOU doing about it? How do you compensate? Or do you hope no one will notice or tell yourself that it’s not that important? Whatever you are doing, the kids are quite likely to imitate you, so don’t fall into any traps that you don’t want your child to be in for the rest of their lives!

Need more ideas about how to build spelling skills? Check out my Spelling Secrets: Transferring Spelling Knowledge to Everyday Writing video. It’s just $4.95 over on Teachers Pay Teachers.

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Add Some Learning Magic with Cryptids!

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Sometimes all kids need to ignite their learning is a really, really motivating topic. How do your students feel about bigfoot, the abominable snow monster, or mothman?

Cryptids are those magical creatures that science has yet to prove, but many, many people around the world believe are real. There are even professionals dedicated to the search called cryptozoologists and cryptobiologists.

And whatever you believe about them, the creatures are hugely interesting. They abound in folklore and stories around the world, and just reading up on the different types and stories of encounters is interesting and exciting. Your student just may unlock a whole area of interest that will push him or her to literacy, reading comprehension, writing, research, and more.

Grab your kids’ interest with my free Cryptid Activity Sampler! You can download it right away at Teachers Pay Teachers or shoot me an email and I will send you the pdf file.

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Looking for Just a Little Help?

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Sometimes all a student needs is just a little nudge.

Introducing MY LEARNING NOOK – the perfect way to get short term help, sign up for lessons, or get personalized resources to use at your own pace.

You can register for the program, book single sessions or shorter-than-an-hour sessions, get consultation and guidance about how to help your student, and much more. It’s even a great way to try a sample tutoring session to see if we are a good “fit.”

I hope to see you very soon over at MY LEARNING NOOK!

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Stepping Off on the Right Foot!

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The New Year is here, and it’s a time of energized and optimistic plans. Include the students in your house this year. Work with them to set realistic and achievable goals about their learning. It’s RESOLUTION TIME! Once the fireworks have died down, scroll on down for ideas about how to make this your new reality.

  • Set Up a Schedule: Whether your kids are in public school, college, or homeschooled, help them learn the discipline it takes to be a good student. Set up a workable schedule that includes adequate time for academic work. Stick with it! Schedules work best if they break study periods up into manageable chunks and allow for some decompression time between classes and independent work. Be sure to post your new schedule where everyone can see.
  • Make a Special Place: Be sure each child or student has a private and quiet place to do school work. It should be far from family distractions like the television, or even high-traffic household areas. Make the space well-lit and inviting, and equip it with the supplies your student is likely to need (to minimize delaying tactics such as “I can’t find the colored pencils!”). For younger or struggling students, make sure you can monitor easily to help them stay on task.
  • Add Some Motivation: For most kids (and even many adults), academic work is not motivating on its own. Yes, you and I know that practice will result in better grades, but this is not always enough. You may well need to add some artificial motivation to keep your kids on track. Consider having them earn a reward for consistency with their new schedule. It will help, especially if you can offer a reward that they value highly.
  • Get the Work Home: All the best laid plans will be meaningless if your student consistently forgets or neglects to bring required materials home from school. If this is a problem at your house, institute a close communication with the teacher or teachers. Find out which days to expect homework, and if the assignment can be found online. And as always, find a way to reward compliance. Offer a high-value outcome for responsible behavior.
  • Make a Plan to Be Productive: If you are concerned at all about student performance (which you must be if you have read this far), consider always using this time, without fail, to focus on academics. The first priority will be school assignments, but make sure to enforce learning time even if nothing has come home from school that night. What to do with the extra time? Help your child build study skills by having them reread or review notes, summarize what they’ve done in class that day (these summaries will make a great DIY study guide when tests come around), practice any weak skills, do puzzles, read, write, or research for personal growth.

Looking for support in your quest to build better habits (and better grades) with your students? You’ve come to the right place! You’ll want to sign up for The Learning Nook’s Tip List to keep the reminders and information coming straight to your inbox. Best of all, you’ll get a free motivational word search puzzle to use during one of your “learning times” when you are searching for productive activities for your kids. Grab yours today:

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Write On!

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One skill that is critical to school success but often overlooked is writing. Some teachers downplay it because it takes so much time and energy to grade. Others simply don’t know how to teach the subject or assume that the student has already been taught all they’re able to learn before they got to the class. It’s also common for teachers to “teach to the test” in writing- focusing solely on the types of writing that are currently on the standardized tests (like argumentative essays or critical analysis. For whatever reason, writing often does not get the attention that it deserves during the school years.

Ideally, your kid will get a balanced diet of written expression activities on a weekly basis or even more often. Essays, reports, stories, descriptions, poetry, analytic pieces, narratives…they all should be in your child’s written expression diet. And along the way, hopefully they get sound instruction in not only grammar and spelling, but also in organization, introductions/conclusions, audience, and all of the other niceties of writing.

But what if the school program is lacking in one or more of these areas? Parents can supplement at home! As I’ve recommended before, kids should be routinely doing 10 minutes of work outside of school per grade level every day. And if there’s not enough official homework to fill the time, this is a great way to supplement.

(Just to give you an idea: K-1: 10 minutes daily, grade 5- 50 minutes daily, grade 8- 1 hour and 20 minutes daily and so on)

Writing Exercises for All Ages

These start out easy-peasy for the youngest writers, and some are even oral exercises that will strengthen language skills. The farther down the list you go, the more challenging the activities become. Pick and choose the ones that are right for your kids, but keep them writing several times weekly!

  • Make lists of words that fit in specific categories. See how many names for animals, colors, ways to move, or words to replace “said” you can come up with together.
  • Develop some sentence frames (sentences with words left out, like an adjective or two in front of a noun, or the verb part of the sentence: The ____, _____ giraffe crossed the field or The billowing clouds _________. Take turns filling in the missing words.
  • Practice writing sentences about a given topic. How many different sentences can you create?
  • Designate Five Sentence Day! Everyone (adults too!) write five sentences in a paragraph to respond to a subject or a prompt.
  • Write a good paragraph with a topic sentence and four or more supporting details.
  • Take a good paragraph already written, and add a sentence to explain each supporting detail further.
  • Look at a comic strip with three or more panels. Write the story told in the strip, including appropriate dialog.
  • Cut some headlines out of a newspaper or print them out. Write the newspaper article to go with the headline.
  • Make alliterative sentences (all or most words begin with the same sound like a tongue-twister).
  • Write a rhyming couplet where the last words of each part of the sentence rhyme.
  • Respond to a book with an analysis, a review, or a summary.
  • Write an essay asking for a privilege or an event. Be sure to support your request with evidence about why it would be needed.
  • Write a personal narrative about an important event in your life.
  • Do a character analysis of a character from your favorite book.
  • Write a 5-paragraph essay supporting a change to school rules or procedures.
  • Write a fanciful story about ______.
  • Write a descriptive passage about your favorite place.
  • Write a how-to piece to give instructions to play a sport or game.
  • Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper expressing your opinion about a local issue.

It doesn’t really matter what you have the kids write about. Just help them get used to the idea of writing regularly. Don’t forget to have them use the writing process (brainstorm, plan, write a draft, revise, edit, and publish). It’s important to get all of the steps in for academic success!

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Need more help with writing for your kids? Please check out my tutoring services and other ways I can support you at sandyfleming online.

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Remote Learning with Pizzazz

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We are nearly midway through the 2020-21 school year, and most of us teachers thought that we’d be able to visit with kids in person by now. Yet here we are, over half of the students in the United States are still learning primarily online, and countless families are involuntarily homeschooling. Fatigue is most certainly settling in for everyone.

This week, spice up that remote learning, whether it is throughout the school day or online assignments after a day in in-person class. Add in some brain breaks that will liven things up. Try these ideas:

  • Pull up some cool dance music on YouTube or your favorite music site and get the kids shakin’ their bootie! Need some ideas? Check out these links: Kid-Safe Pop Songs and Dance Hits from Around the World.
  • Sing your favorite action songs. Dig out your memories from summer camps gone by for those songs that have loads of motions, or if you need some new material, check out GoNoodle.
  • Play Balloon Volleyball. Just inflate one or two balloons and challenge the kiddoes to keep them afloat for a certain amount of time, like three minutes. No fair letting them hit the floor or touch any furniture!
  • Try some challenges, like rubbing a stomach while patting a head or blinking one eye while snapping fingers on the opposite hand. Not only will these silly challenges amuse and engage kids, but they also will help develop crucial attention and coordination skills.
  • Set up a scavenger hunt for items in your home. Allow kids to take a break to find one or two things on the list at a time, then work for another time segment.
  • Try a sensory bin filled with macaroni, beads, or other small items that you have a bunch of. Bury several small toys for kids to find in the bin. These work well in small storage boxes with lids- you can fix up a few different ones and rotate them.
  • Start a jigsaw puzzle in an out of the way spot, and adjourn to the puzzle after working for 30-60 minutes.
  • Play a group brain game. For example, play “One, Two, Octopus” – choose a small number and have the group count off, saying “octopus” when they come to a multiple of the chosen number. Or play one of the alphabet memory games, like “I’m going on vacation and I’m going to pack…” where each person repeats the list so far and adds a new item. How far can your group get?

Do you need more help with your child’s learning (remote or otherwise)? Be sure to visit SandyFlemingOnline to learn about ways to solve your child’s learning challenges!

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Learning and Growing

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Wow, I feel a lot like a sponge! I’ve been completing some continuing education programs designed to help me do parts of my job more effectively and my brain is busting!

The workshop today was on improving online fundraising strategies, and let me tell you, there are a lot of ways your nonprofit can tweak your communications and website to make it happen.  More and more, people want to donate online, and I picked up some cool do’s and don’ts.  Interested?  Contact me!  I’ll be happy to share what I’ve learned and we can talk about how I can help your organization.

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Active Minds…an Upcoming Project

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It’s hard to find a parent that doesn’t want their kids to learn over the summer.  What’s more rare is the parent who knows exactly how to make that happen without turning summer days into mirror images of school days, with sit-down paper-and-pencil tasks that kill love for learning.

3dbookimage3So I’ve got a project (and a good one!).  I’m working on a book that will guide parents and caregivers into projects that will help the kids learn and practice skills, but at the same time, will be motivating, interesting, and hands-on.  So far, the book has five great long-term project ideas outlined in detail, with reasons why you may want to pursue them, connections to academic skills if you feel the need to justify them, extension activities to keep the learning moving, resources where you can find the help you need, and even reproducible pages that will help build your students’ independence and thinking skills.  I’ll keep you up-to-date on the latest on this project, so watch for a quick webinar coming soon, and even some free sample “packets” that explain one project at a time.

Sign up today to get updates and notices about discounts.  I’ve also got three numbers picked out as “Mystery Numbers”…. Mystery number  subscribers (the ones who end up in those spots on the list) will get a copy of the book absolutely free!

And have a great summer!

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Back Into the Swing

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Wow, I think my world is under control enough to begin blogging again (at least, I hope so!).  I’ve been keeping busy; how about you?  Let me catch you up…..

Mostly I’ve been working on writing high-stakes test items for a few clients.  I enjoy the work and it pays well, so I can put aside the feelings of cognitive dissonance that result from not really agreeing with the whole “testing model” that our schools are so into right now.  I also write reviews for iPad educational apps over at Best Apps for Kids.  Stop on by if you have youngsters and an iPad, iPhone or iPod-there are some outstanding apps out there!!

I’ve got a couple of clients that have requested internet services, so I’ve set up some websites for small businesses.  I think the slickest one is a local Doggie Daycare called Bunk and Biscuit.  Other clients have me writing grants and working on social media and newsletters.  It’s fun!

I’ve still got in-person students and a few on-line students as well, but there’s room in the schedule if you know someone who needs help.  And check out the calendar page above to see when and where the next events are.  Talk to you again soon!

 

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