Ideas for practicing/fun math timed tests?

[Bekka]

My 3rd grader is doing FINE in all her subjects except timed math tests. I hated timed tests in school. She feels like a failure because she's one of the slowest in the class, although she can DO all the math, just not in the time limit. Right now she's doing addition and subtraction; she'll be up to multiplication tables by the 3rd quarter, div. in 4th quarter.

I need ideas for fun ways to increase speed. She's very discouraged but it's not like it's a huge amount slow--she can do 40 out of 50 in 1 1/2 minutes; I'm sure she can do 50 in 2 or 2 1/2 minutes. She needs to have ways to breed successes here, though, so I'm open to ideas.

[daisymama12]

We have these too. I didn't have them when I was a kid, so it's new to me.

My two suggestions are to have her do them online, and when you practice with her, start with really easy questions, like +1 or +2 stuff, to build up her confidence in working through questions.

The online exercises were on bbc kids, but it was for pre-k/grade 1, so not useful, but I don't think it would be hard to find.

hth, and good luck to your dd

[1xmom]

mathfactscafe has a good website for kids. I usually print out some worksheets and have my dd practice them, we only do 1 or 2 at a time depending on how many problems are on a worksheets.
What my dd enjoyed besides the mathfacts, is just printing out a multiplication table and filling in the squares. You could probably do that for addition/subtraction as well.

[Evan&Anna's_Mom]

DS loves to do the math games on the computer and they usually have some sort of either time limit or time advantage (e.g. more points for faster work). We really like the programs from Jumpstart. I have definitely seen the increase in speed at the computer transalate into increased speed for paper tests. And computer games that use math are a whole lot more fun that practice paper tests.

[Just1More]

My mom and I would just recite math facts all the time when I was a kid. I enjoyed doing it, and it helped me a lot. She'd just do a bit here and there. They were so stuck in my head, I didn't have to think about it much.

[Kyamo]

Originally Posted by Evan&Anna's_Mom

DS loves to do the math games on the computer and they usually have some sort of either time limit or time advantage (e.g. more points for faster work). We really like the programs from Jumpstart. I have definitely seen the increase in speed at the computer transalate into increased speed for paper tests. And computer games that use math are a whole lot more fun that practice paper tests.

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[almama]

Check out the BBC or CBC sites for fun games, but also for multiplication you may want to try Timez Attack: http://www.bigbrainz.com/. There is a free version which is plenty for getting the basic speed answering concept down.

For non-computer, you could try the "Twist and Shout" Leap Frog products, games like "Shut the Box" or "Sum Swamp," and there is always doing speed math for prizes at home. I'm not advocating any of these methods, just passing them along. Some of them would make my kids too nervous (esp. the prize thing), but it works for other.

[lightheart]

Are you approaching it at home where she has a set of problems and is given X amount of time and she should be finished with all

or are you working with it where she has a stop watch and someone says GO! and she works until she is done. (with no stopwatch or clocks around for her to look at) There is no one saying STOP except her.

I would think practicing the 2nd way, would be less stressful....

and even NOT telling her what her actual time was, just you keeping track so that she doesn't get caught up in the whole am I doing better? Am I slow? Did I do the same? type of thinking.

Maybe you could do something where time is a secret for the week and you write it down, fold it up and put it in a jar and then every week you could get out all the times, add them together, average them, manipulate them somehow so that she does see/feel that there is a goal of sorts with the time and she gets to know what the numbers are, just not per practice page.

What about splitting the # of problems up? Instead of her having to do all 40 problems in X number of minutes, what about 5 problems in X number of seconds? Maybe even breaking up the actual sheets so she isn't looking at all 40 problems all at once. You could increase the number of problems to 8 or 10 when she meets whatever goal she has set.

... her setting her own goals, instead of you saying to her, do these problems in 3 minutes you show her the sheet, she skims over it and tells you I will try and do these in 4.5 minutes or 4 or whatever she thinks she can do, that way she is working on her own schedule, not some arbitrary time that you or the teacher or text book has set.

[straighthaircurly]

My son's school does Rocket Math to help kids practice their speed with math facts. The kids LOVE it because they are not being judged against other kids they are using a goal setting method based on their writing speed and then seeing if they can beat their goal on the timed tests.

Here is a website that has the worksheets:
http://www.dadsworksheets.com/2008/0...f-rocket-math/

I didn't see the goal setting sheet, but the goal setting sheet is just a random assortment of 42 numbers between 1 and 100 with a large box below each one to write the number. The child writes as many of the numbers as they can in one minute. Thie quantity they can complete becomes their goal for doing the various timed operation sheets.