Fact Strategy Workshop

Overview

Students build fluency with addition facts to 20 by representing facts and explaining efficient strategies. Year 3 learners connect known addition facts to multiplication and related division facts for 2s, 5s and 10s, with an optional 4s/8s challenge.

Prior knowledge

Students should be able to count forwards and backwards, recognise numbers to at least 100, represent quantities with counters, and use simple addition strategies. Year 3 learners should have experienced equal groups, repeated addition and sharing into equal groups.

Learning intentions

• Year 2 — WALT recall addition facts to 20 and explain a strategy for solving an unfamiliar fact.
• Year 2 — WALT use known facts, such as doubles and number bonds to 10, to derive new facts.
• Year 3 — WALT use efficient addition strategies and fact families to check related facts.
• Year 3 — WALT recall and apply 2s, 5s and 10s multiplication and division facts, and investigate 4s and 8s.

Success criteria

• I can solve addition facts to 20 and explain how I know.
• I can use a known fact to work out a new fact.
• I can show that addition facts can be turned around without changing the total.
• Year 3: I can connect multiplication facts with related division facts using equal groups.
• Year 3: I can use a 4s or 8s fact to solve a challenge.

Curriculum links

• Number — recalling addition facts to 20: developing accurate and increasingly fluent recall.
• Number — deriving facts from known facts and place value: using relationships, representations and efficient strategies.
• Number — 2s, 5s and 10s multiplication and division facts: connecting equal groups, multiplication and sharing.
• Number — 4s and 8s: extending known multiplication and division relationships.
• Mathsteasers: encouraging explanation, reasoning and challenge for advanced learners.

Vocabulary

fact, addition, addend, total, sum, equal, doubles, near doubles, make 10, commutative, array, equal groups, multiplication, division, fact family, share.

Lesson structure (60 minutes)

1. 0–7 min · Warm-up: Fact Flash. Teacher displays one addition fact at a time using the opening fact-flash slides, pausing for think time and asking, “How did you know?” Students solve on fingers, mini-whiteboards or mentally, then compare strategies with a partner. Include doubles, near doubles, number bonds to 10 and facts such as 7 + 3, 6 + 6, 8 + 7 and 9 + 5.

2. 7–20 min · Explicit teaching: Make connections. Teacher models counters on a 20-frame and an open number line, using the visual strategy slides to demonstrate:

• doubles: 6 + 6;
• near doubles: 6 + 7 as 6 + 6 + 1;
• making 10: 8 + 5 as 8 + 2 + 3;
• commutativity: 4 + 9 and 9 + 4;
• fact families: 7 + 5 = 12, 5 + 7 = 12, 12 − 7 = 5, 12 − 5 = 7.

Students build examples with counters and explain which known fact helped. Prompt: “What did you know already?”, “Can you solve it another way?”, and “Which strategy is most efficient here?”

3. 20–35 min · Partner game: Build, say, prove. Teacher places students in mixed-ability pairs and distributes the differentiated fact-strategy worksheet. Students take turns choosing an addition question, solving it with counters, a drawing or a mental strategy, and recording the known fact used. Partners must ask, “How do you know?” Year 2 learners focus on facts to 20; Year 3 learners complete fact-family and derived-fact questions. Teacher circulates, checking that students explain rather than simply count every object.

4. 35–48 min · Year-level challenge stations. Teacher explains the two pathways using the partner-game and challenge slides.

• Year 2 pathway: partners use the number-bonds strategy mat to choose a whole to 20, complete bonds, and match them to addition and subtraction facts. They practise doubles, near doubles and making 10.
• Year 3 pathway: partners make equal groups with counters and record multiplication and division fact families for 2s, 5s and 10s. For example, 5 groups of 2 = 10, so 5 × 2 = 10 and 10 ÷ 2 = 5. Early finishers investigate 4s and 8s by doubling a 2s or 4s fact.

Prompts: “What does each number represent?”, “How does multiplication help division?”, and “What changes if you turn the array around?”

5. 48–55 min · Share and formative check. Teacher selects examples that show different strategies and records them on the board. Students hold up one, two or three fingers to indicate whether they used a known fact, a drawing or counting, then explain one answer to a partner. Teacher notes learners who need concrete support, who rely on counting, and who can justify derived facts.

6. 55–60 min · Exit ticket and reflection. Teacher displays the final prompts on the plenary and exit-ticket slides and students complete the last section of the individual exit-ticket section:

• Solve 8 + 7 and show or describe your strategy.
• Write one related fact.
• Year 3: complete 5 × 2 = 10 and 10 ÷ 2 = __.

Students circle: “I can explain my strategy” or “I need more practice”. Collect responses for the next teaching group.

Resources

• the complete 60-minute strategy deck
• the differentiated fact-strategy worksheet
• the number-bonds strategy mat
• Counters or linking cubes
• 20-frames
• Mini-whiteboards and pens
• Open number-line strips
• Pencils and erasers
• Board space for recording strategies

Assessment

• Listen for accurate use of doubles, near doubles, making 10, commutativity and fact-family language during partner work.
• Observe whether students represent quantities, explain a known fact connection and move towards efficient recall rather than counting every object.
• Use the exit ticket to group students for follow-up: concrete modelling, strategy practice or multiplication/division extension.

Differentiation

• Support: provide counters, 20-frames, number lines and partially completed number bonds; reduce the range to facts within 10 before returning to facts within 20.
• Offer sentence frames: “I know ___, so I worked out ___ by ___” and “The numbers in my fact family are ___.”
• Pair learners thoughtfully and accept oral explanations, pointing, drawing or home-language discussion before recording.
• Extension: ask Year 3 learners to derive 4s and 8s facts by doubling, explain more than one strategy, or create a related fact family for a partner to solve.