It’s time to Blast Off With Me and Learn a Fact Family

Since the Fact Family Schoolhouses were such a huge hit, I wanted to dream up some more things that would get students excited to WANT to learn and practice their fact families.

Let’s face it, things can get pretty tedious when you’re a kid, and teachers only have so much time to think outside the box.

That’s my forte’ and I had an absolute blast designing a Space Travel Fact Family Learning Log!

I really think this idea will get your students “hooked” and they’ll actually be asking to work on their math facts, because they’ll want to collect the “stickers”!  Collecting something is quite addicting to a child.  That’s why it’s such a hot market in the toy world.

Stickers are an easy and fun way to motivate them and build their self-esteem at the same time; besides, playing the games and doing the activities are also entertaining!

I’m not sure why a small scrap of paper is such a big deal to a little kid, but I’m all over it, because of its success as a motivational and incentive teaching tool.

I’ve designed several types for students to choose from; you print them off and they cut and glue them to their booklets, or you can use my clipart designs and drag them into a label and truly make them “sticky”.

The more opportunities you can think of to immerse kids in fact families, the easier it is for them to remember them, ‘til the light bulb finally comes on. 

“Practice makes perfect!” really rings true, when it comes to fact families, however, this can get rather boring.

“Worksheets” can quickly become “skill-drill and kill” sheets and is precisely why I don’t call tabletop lessons “worksheets”, but “skill sheets”.

Who wants to do work?  For example: Which statement gets you rarin’ to go? “Please do the worksheet on your desk.” Or…“Today we’re having fun practicing a skill by playing a game.” See what I mean?

Here’s How To Make A Learning Log:

Run off my masters.  Students will be taking a journey “…on a planetary path, learning fact family math.” 

Each time they learn a fact family, they get a planet sticker. Once they’ve learned ALL of the fact families in the galaxy, they receive the bonus Earth sticker for the “mission” accomplished” achievement.

They choose a rocket, name, cut and glue it to their booklet and are able to earn rocket stickers for a variety of in-class fact family work.

They also choose an alien friend, name, cut and glue them to that learning log page and are able to earn alien and spaceship stickers for still more fact family activities.

There’s also a page for miscellaneous reward and award stickers.  Here I suggest having a daily or weekly sticker posted, which keeps students motivated and gets them excited to work on some aspect of fact families, because they will want to earn that featured sticker

Finally, the last page is a congratulations page, where they have accomplished their math missions and their learning log is now complete!

I’ve included a fact family rocket spinner game, rocket booklet, traceable fact family number and equation cards, recording sheets, and other fun-filled fact family stuff for your students to do, to make collecting stickers and learning along their journey, most pleasurable.

Click on the link to view/download the Rocket Fact Family Packet   I hope you and your space travelers enjoy this packet as much as I did creating it!

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"Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one." -Malcolm Forbes