Freebie Friday - Bubble Math: Learn To Add Fast

Being able to add quickly in your head is an essential skill not only for more advanced math but also in daily life.  Think about going shopping and being able to add prices in your head quickly to make sure you don't go over budget.  Or think about adding measurements together quickly when you're building something.  Bubble math is an easy way to gain the skill of adding quickly.  You can download the Bubble math packet as a PDF (numbers 1-12) HERE for free and print it off.  If you want to share this resource, please share the link to this blog post.

Inside the bubble math packet are instructions and tips for the teacher on how to do the exercises.  When using these bubbles for addition practice, the student is trying to get to the number in the left bubble.  In the example to the left the number the student is trying to get to is 10.  They are given the number 4 in the top right bubble, and need to fill in the blank bubble with a number that when added to 4 equals 10.  In our example the student fills in the number 6, because 6+4=10.  The student asks himself, 4 plus what number equals 10?

You can also use this packet for subtraction practice by reversing the above process.  For subtraction practice the student would ask himself: 10 minus what number equals 4 and fill in the blank.

Freebie Friday - Fun Addition and Multiplication Drills

Who says math has to be boring?  Today I have another freebie for you.  This time it's addition and multiplication drills.  You can print the PDF HERE.  

The idea is simple, print the page you want to practice, write the operation being practiced in the square box in the center (addition or multiplication), and then have the child perform the operation on the number in the center of the flower with one of it's petals and write the answer in the outer petal.

In the PDF there is a title page, an instructional page with examples and tips and tricks to make this exercise fun and interesting, and four pages of flower drills.  In the center of the flowers the numbers go from 1-12 and there are two flowers per number.  For each center number (1-12) there are the numbers 0-13 to practice with in the petals, with special emphasis on the numbers 7 and 9 which students often have trouble with.

Freebie Friday - Trace Worksheets

It's Friday the 13th, but instead of something awful happening I thought I'd give you a freebie to brighten your day!  Check it out.  I'd made a PDF some time ago of tracer worksheets (letters, numbers, words) for my Kindergartener to trace.  The great thing about these is that you can either print them out and they can use crayon, pencil or marker, OR you can laminate them and use them with a dry erase marker as we did.  I suggest if you laminate them to use a thicker paper when you print, print double sided, and then you have a two sided worksheet and get to save on paper and space.