Foundational Fluency

Students are taught specific foundational skills at each grade level. However, most students need ongoing practice to retain these foundational skills, such as math facts.

Snow Horse has implemented a school-wide foundational math fluency skills tracking system to:

• help students be successful and confident in math
• reduce the amount of stress students encounter when faced with more complex problems
• help students access higher level thinking problem solving
• cut down on the amount of time it takes students to complete grade level math homework. 

Mary Buck, an educational consultant explained it well when she said, “We want students to build fluency…so that they can continue to understand and solve more complex problems at each new grade level. If students cannot do the “arithmetic” or calculations easily it is difficult for them to solve problems requiring simple calculations. This difficulty is caused by the amount of working memory we have available to us when solving problems. If our working memory is busy trying to figure out the computation, it is more difficult for us to make sense of the higher-level mathematical concepts being grappled with at that moment. Similarly, when reading, if students struggle to decode the words, then they will have difficulty understanding the larger meaning of the text.” 

Grade level teams identified essential prerequisite math skills. Students must be fluent in those skills to successfully access grade level curriculum. (Please see below for a list of these skills.) 

Teachers worked together to make the implementation of this school-wide initiative user-friendly for themselves, parents and students.  Several teachers have piloted the process. Students and parents reported that it is quick and simple.

Here are the basics:

• Parents and students receive direction sheets from individual teachers
• Student practices with self and/or parent at home 
• Students pass off foundational skill at school
• REPEAT process with next skill 

We recognize life is busy. Fortunately, it doesn’t take a lot of time- approximately 5 minutes.

(Flash cards, math drills and apps can easily be practiced outside of school time - riding in the car, doing hair in the morning, making meals and family game time). 

If you have questions don’t hesitate to contact your child’s teacher or school administration. Together we can help ensure that each student achieves their individual potential.