by Victoria Moss

Created on: July 04, 2008

To fully engage younger students, we need to provide hands-on activities which create heightened sensation and an increased awareness of the nature of the task. Meaningful tasks make learning easier, and if the tasks can be presented in a way that is fun and enjoyable as well, we are providing the best opportunities for student learning.

My second year students had been working on addition facts for some weeks. They readily grasped the concept of putting five beans with three beans and getting a total of eight. We would construct various combinations of numbers using beads, pop-sticks, acorns and even jelly-beans, some of which they were allowed to eat at the end of the activity.

Despite the daily practice, the students' memorisation of the addition facts was slow to develop, and they continued to count on their fingers to get their answers. One morning, we played "Swat the Fly" as an introductory game. From then on, their enthusiasm, effort and ability to recall the facts simply soared.

The game was played with the children sitting in a circle with six large pieces of coloured card spread flat in the centre. Each card had been cut into the shape of a fly and had a number from 1 to 6 written on it. The first two players were given blue and red fly-swats and, at a given signal, each had to hit a "fly" with the swat.

Say that the numbers swatted were 4 and 5: the children would call out their answers and whoever was first to say "nine" would score a point. Whoever followed this with the complete fact ("five plus four equals nine") would score another point. If one child gave an incorrect answer someone in the circle could put up a hand, call out the correct response and take his or her place.

The children loved this game and we used it for a "warm up" before each Maths session. As they became more confident, the pace increased and it became even more exciting. Before too long, they were able to recall all facts that could be made with these cards and extra "flies" were put down. With two of each digit, all the doubles were soon memorised as well. Eventually, there were cards with all digits from 0 through to 10 in the game.

"Swat the Fly" can be adapted to practise subtraction facts. In this case, the students have to be reminded to say the larger number first, which reinforces the concept that "Nine take away four equals five" but we cannot subtract by saying "four take away nine."

Multiplication and division facts are also worth practising in game format, when the

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