Aug 16

Written by: deb
8/16/2014 7:40 AM 

Mental Math: Mental math should be done daily, starting in kindergarten to help keep student skills fresh and to help free them from fearing math. All students are capable of doing math in their minds, without the use of fingers or paper, if they are taught to do this from a young age. It should be a part of your regular routine, just liked daily timed tests on addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Try starting with simple problems, like 2 +1 +1 - 2 + 1. (Hesitate between each part of the problem, allowing the student to get the answer to 2+1 in their mind before moving on to the next part.) In second grade, my advanced students were doing square roots, division, multiplication, and even a fractional part of a whole number in their minds. We use Mental Math as a five minute filler before a recess or as a cool down after recess. The kids like more complicated problems like 3 dozen minus 5 plus 2 divided by 11.

When a student answers a question correctly, give him a stamp on his incentive card...or whatever your reward program might be.

Happy teaching!

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