It’s the doubles baby. Let’s go, let’s go! In this blog post, I will be sharing what are doubles facts and why they help students learn their addition and subtraction math facts.
I love using math fact strategies because they give meaning behind the numbers and facts. They help students when they are “stuck” on a problem. They empower students to find the answer by themselves. That is just so amazing to me! I can’t wait to share more about what are doubles facts and how I use them in my classroom!
These are doubles facts! They are easier for students to commit to memory than other facts. I use a little song/chant in my class to help students learn these facts at the beginning of the year. I even have posters helping up with the rhyming parts to help students if they do get stuck on a doubles fact. However, usually students catch on to these students really fast!
Like I said, when I am talking about doubles facts in math I’m talking about facts like 7+7=14, and 3+3=6. Well there are eleven facts there. So if students know their doubles facts, they have already memorized eleven facts!
But we can take it further… The real magic comes with “near doubles facts” or “doubles facts plus one.” If we know 7+7=14, then when we see 7+8 we know 8 is one more than 7. So one more than 14 is 15. So, the answer is 15.
We can also take it with one less than the doubles fact. We know 7+7=14. Then when I see 7+6 I know that 6 is one less than 7. So one less than 14 is 13.
So we went from knowing ten facts with doubles to knowing like 33 facts with near doubles facts! So it’s a pretty powerful strategy!
Getting students to use this strategy mentally does take some practice. It can’t just be one lesson and done. I have my students practice with tasks cards! They find the doubles facts and then the near doubles fact that goes with it. Find the Doubles Facts Task Cards and Posters I use in my classroom here.
I also have my students practice online with these Boom Cards set. Here’s the one for addition and the one for subtraction.
Not only do students need practice but they need to see you using the strategy! I like to think out loud when we come to a near doubles fact in our regular math lessons. Here’s an example: “I see this fact is 6+5… I know that 5+5 equals 10. Six is one more than five. So one more than 10 is 11. So the answer is 11.”
Soon in your regular math lessons you will hear your students shout out, “It’s a doubles fact!” or “it’s a near doubles fact!” and that is exactly what you want!
I hope you can see yourself teaching this strategy to your students. If you want to learn more about other strategies I use to teach math facts, check out this blog post Math Fact Strategies that Work!
Getting students to math fact fluency can be a tricky task for elementary teachers. That is why I made a free workbook for teachers! I’m sharing 7 simple steps to help students become fluent with addition and subtraction facts. Get the link here!
