ABSTRACT
Games are an important part of practice. They help students to practice thinking and reasoning about math with strategies. Students must learn mathematics with understanding, actively building new knowledge from experience and prior knowledge. In a small-guided math group the teacher might give the students work mats and tell them stories and they have to solve the problems using the manipulatives. Students will need some guidance, they are not going to just make all the connections, however, teachers shouldn't be directly just teaching strategy by strategy. There is a 5-part framework for individual fact practice. It is based on Van de Walle's advice to practice so that students have a great deal of experience with the strategies. Parents or guardians need to know where students are in learning their facts. Math Workstations students are engaging in independent, purposeful practice. Students should have the opportunity to work on achieving fluency with addition in small groups, individual practice times, and math workstations.
