Fact Families: Using Mommy, Daddy, and Baby to Teach Fact Family Skills

This week my first graders have moved onto one of my all time favorite math topics: Fact Families!

I adore fact families because once students “get it” they can easily relate addition to subtraction and angels begin to sing! (Oh, is that just in my head?)

When I teach fact families, I introduce it by writing three number in a fact family such as 7,3, and 10. I explain that we’re going to be learning about fact families and in fact families there are three people: a daddy, a mama, and a baby. I ask my students to guess which number is the daddy. They *always* get it right. I ask them why and they always answer “because he’s the biggest”.

Next I ask who the baby is. They also always get it correct “3 because it’s the smallest” Yes! Finally, they tell me that the 7 is the mama because it’s in the middle.

I then draw a fact family template like this:

_____+_____=_____

_____-_____=_____

I explain that the daddy always go in first to make sure it’s safe for the mama and the baby. The daddy goes at the end when we add and the beginning when we subtract. We also discuss WHY (when you add the sum is the biggest number and when you subtract the first number is the biggest number).

_____+_____=10

10-_____=_____

Then I remind them of the flip flop rule and I explain that it doesn’t matter what order we put the mama and baby in the first addition sentence, we just have to make sure we flip flop it the second time. Also, we do the same thing in our subtraction sentences.

3+7=10

7+3=10

10-3=7

10-7=3

Now here’s where it gets fun. I’ll pick 5 students to come up to the front of the room. One student holds a plus sign, one student holds an equal sign, and I give the other 3 students number cards with fact family numbers. They get to move around to make each addition and subtraction sentence and then we’ll write it on the white board. I always make sure every student gets a turn. This is one of their favorite games, and actually moving with the numbers helps them understand the concept.

We also always make fact families houses. They’re super cute and super fun! Here’s what the finished product looks like! They make a great bulletin board as well. Click the picture to purchase the template from my teacherspayteachers store.

This year I also wrote a fact family song to help my students remember where to put the daddy. It’s included in the above template, but you can also click the picture below to download it for free.

I’ve gotten lots of requests for how to rap this song, so here you go!

So, that’s the facts about fact families! I’m starting to feel better, so hopefully I’ll be able to get back to my normal amount of posts next week. 🙂

Martha from Primary Paradise

How do you teach fact families? Post about it in a comment below!