Winter Themed Mats for Fact Families and Addition
We’re always looking for something to get my kids engaged in learning – that’s basically my entire site!
Sometimes it just means having a visually appealing mat to work through addition problems.
Winter Addition Mats
These winter addition mats are perfect for kids who:
- need addition practice
- want to play with their math
- need a visual to work through their math problems
I find fact family mats especially good when explaining part, part, and whole.
And they’re also good when showing that subtraction is essentially the opposite of addition. It’s easy to explain that 5+4=9 also means 9-4=5 when using a fact family mat.
How to Use the Fact Family Mats
There are many ways to utilize fact family mats so don’t feel limited by my examples.
My favorite way to use them is with mini erasers or other small objects.
Start by writing the intended math problem on top. Then use mini erasers on the smaller snowflakes to show the problem
Finally, combine all of the mini erasers in the bigger snowflake.
Count them up and that’s your answer.
Don’t have mini erasers or other small objects? That’s fine! You can also laminate (or put in a sheet protector) and use a dry erase marker. It will have the same effect.
There are also addition problem cards included in this set (and blank cards with fillable spaces to make your own).
Why are fact families important?
Fact families are an important part of math for 2 main reasons.
- They show the relationship between addition and subtraction (and later multiplication and division)
- They help kids memorize their math facts much easier.
In my opinion, the main goal of math should be for kids to truly understand what they are doing and why. It’s not enough that they know how to get the answer. I would rather take twice as long to teach math if it meant understanding.
Knowing why 5+4=9 is the same as 9-5=4 is much better than simply knowing those facts separately.
Understanding underlying math will make harder math concepts so much easier to learn and understand.
But when kids don’t understand math concepts it’s much harder for them to implement the concepts in different scenarios.
Get your Winter Addition Fact Family Mats Here
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