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“This resource truly addresses all styles of learning.” Math
Facts to the MAX! It’s time to replace those tedious, ineffective, drill-and-kill worksheets with Math Facts to the Max, a fresh, innovative approach to the all-important basic number facts. This kid-friendly program uses powerful visual cues and unforgettable original songs to help children master the strategies that promote understanding and quick recall. |
| Reviews | Math Facts to the Max! at a Glance | Contents of Book |
| Sample Activities | Why Children Don't Know "The Facts" | Contents of CD |
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To
request free diagnostic math facts tests contact
us. |
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This flexible system for children ages 6 to 11 is appropriate for classroom, home, and tutorial use. It covers all levels of facts for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.
"My daughter has made a complete turnaround."
Math Facts to the Max captures the interest of students through their natural love of music and humor. Like the other titles of the Teaching Lynx Series, its goal is to forge links between powerful math instruction and activities that engage the hearts and minds of children.
“My kids beamed with delight."
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Ingenious flash card visuals for each type of fact
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Songs which help children memorize key strategies
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Hands-on experiences which link to the flash cards and songs
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Review activities that reinforce and maintain skills
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Tests for tracking student progress
To ensure that the activities are both effective and manageable, the lessons were piloted with students in more than 12 classrooms at 1st through 6th grade levels. The lessons were revised repeatedly, based on input from teachers and practical experience with “real kids.”
Pilot-classroom students using the "Max" system made dramatically accelerated progress, compared to those using textbook activities and timed drills.
The program includes:
- Copy masters for two-sided flash cards
- CD with 25 unforgettable songs and 11 hilarious “Igor and Boss” vignettes
- Teacher- and parent-friendly guide
“The lively songs make learning math facts fun and easy. I even hear students humming the songs while they are working on their math assignments. . . This resource truly addresses all styles of learning.” — Sarah Anderson, 4th Grade Teacher
“By turning learning into a fun experience, my daughter has made a complete turnaround. The flash cards have helped tremendously by teaching her the basics she needs to move forward. She has a new-found confidence in herself.” — Cindy Frediani, Parent
“My kids beamed with delight . . . The songs strengthened their self confidence and desire to learn more.” — Karen Murphy, 3rd Grade Teacher
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Bold = Song Regular = Spoken Vignette 1. Dots Good |
18. 10-Frame
of Mine |
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Songs and "Igor and Boss" Vignettes
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Flash Cards
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Visual and Hands-On Activities
The songs are an integral part of the program. They provide valuable memory "hooks" and greatly accelerate learning. Click here for complete CD contents.
Some songs provide memory aids for patterns. Click
for examples:
"Ladybugs" helps students learn to skip-count
by 6s.
"Twintown Doubles" provides
practice for the addition doubles.
Other songs highlight rapid-computation strategies.
Click for examples:
"9, Be My Friend" encourages
students to convert 9 to "friendly" 10 when adding.
"Family of Facts" builds on
children's knowledge of addition to solve subtraction facts.
"The Great Divide" gives examples
of the use of multiplication to solve division facts.
The Flash Cards
The flash cards link to the songs and provide visual cues which teach key patterns and strategies.
The Doubles + 1 cards dovetail with the song "Twintown Troubles" and provide a visual representation that helps children extend 7 + 7 to 7 + 8, and so on.
The 10-Frame of Mine cards support hands-on subtraction activities and are reinforced by the "10-Frame of Mine" song.
The Ladybug Tricks with 6 cards extend the learning of the 6s pattern of the "Ladybugs" song and prepare students for multiplying with 6 in the flash card set Pete Picks 6.
The Column and Row cards help students picture the division as counting multiples in a rectangular array. The "Multiples Grow by Column and Row" song gives four examples of this powerful method.
| SONG EXCERPTS Ladybugs
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| 9, Be My Friend 9, be my friend, now, Let me turn you into 10, now, I’ll show you just how, Take a one and make a 10 right now. Let’s play a 10 game, 9 and a 6, now, |
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When you come to the Great Divide, 24, divided by 6, When you come to the Great Divide, |
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| Twintown
Troubles In Twintown everything came in doubles, But one day they had some trouble with their doubles . . . Now 4 + 4 was 8, they knew, 5 and 6 . . . |
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EXAMPLES OF FLASH CARDS You may view flash card samples (and listen to songs) at the Songs For Teaching web site. |
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A Troubling Picture
Teachers and parents everywhere are concerned about the many children who are not mastering the basic number facts. We adults know full well that these facts are indeed basic, and that mathematics can be an ordeal for students who don’t know them.
Yet teachers – and parents – spend inordinate amounts of time and energy attempting to teach these facts. Some students struggle for years, and finally decide “I’m just no good at math!” Too often they miss the opportunity to move into higher level math courses – classes that can open doors to college degrees and promising careers.
What’s wrong with this picture? Why, given all the resources devoted to teaching basic facts, are so many children making dismal progress?
The Fatal Flaws
When it comes to helping children learn the basic facts, most math curricula are fatally flawed.
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Students are pushed into memorizing the facts before they understand the concepts involved.
- Children are forced to study too many facts at one time.
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Children have too few opportunities to make connections between math and real-world contexts, visual images, and hands-on materials.
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Textbooks move too quickly from addition to subtraction and from multiplication to division.
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Students are given too little time to master a new strategy before moving on to the next one.
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Instruction is not tailored to individual needs. Some children are bored, while others are overwhelmed.
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Not enough time is spent reviewing previously learned facts.
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“Drill-and-kill” methods, such as timed drills and endless workbook pages, are tedious, inefficient, and anxiety-provoking.
Lessons From the Research – And From Classrooms
In recent years, teachers and students have experienced curriculum whiplash, as math education has zigzagged back and forth between experiential math programs that de-empasize basic skills to rote-oriented textbooks which dictate one – and only one – way of solving a given type of problem.
There is a middle ground that makes sense. Decades of research, along with the experience of successful teachers and tutors, point the way toward a better alternative. Children can have “the best of all possible worlds” when it comes to learning math. The key is linking conceptual learning with explicit instruction in basic skills.
Many approaches to the basic facts place a heavy emphasis on memorization, as if each number fact were an isolated formula without any relationship to the other facts. A more sensible approach is teaching for automaticity – rapid responses based on the relationships among numbers and on the patterns which are at the heart of mathematics.
Math
Facts to the MAX!
ISBN 0-9704459-2-X 158 reproducible pages / 35-track
music CD
Book and CD for $29.95
Online . . . Listen to Songs / Buy
Phone . . . 800-649-5514 or 800-852-4890