Games give children repeated practice without the monotony of flashcards. Board games with two dice give students a chance to practice addition facts. Each player has to add the numbers of the dice to get the total number of moves. Playing cards offer another way to practice math facts. A modified version of War is one example for pairs to play. Each person has half of the card pile. Both players flip over one card each from their respective piles. The first person to call out the sum, difference or product -- depending on the math function you're practicing -- of the two numbers gets to keep both.
Finding patterns in basic math facts helps students commit the answers to memory. An example is learning to count by fives. The students notice that all of the numbers end in either zero or five. When they learn the multiplication facts for five, they'll have an easier time remembering the answers. Another way for children to pick up on patterns is to practice fact families together. For example, 4 + 6 = 10 and 6 + 4 = 10. You can relate that fact family to the corresponding subtraction problems, which are 10 - 4 = 6 and 10 - 6 = 4.
Math manipulatives give students a chance to get their hands on math fact practice. Simple counters, such as blocks or plastic bears, work well for the hands-on fact practice. Those flashcards you have on hand complement the counters. With a flashcard showing a math fact, the child represents the problem with the counters. For example, to show the math problem five plus seven, she might count out five interlocking red blocks and seven blue blocks. Connecting the red and blue blocks shows the total number of 12, while still showing the individual sets of five and seven. For a division problem, she starts with the total number of counters, such as 49. She then sorts them into a specific number of groups, such as seven, to show the answer to the division problem 49 divided by 7.
Math facts are often practiced in isolation during specific drills, but practicing during real-world situations is a meaningful way to commit them to memory. The grocery store is an easy place to practice math skills. Calculating costs or the number of groceries in the cart allows for math practice. For example, if you have a box of cereal for $4 and a package of meat for $7, the child can practice adding four plus seven. If you have three packages with eight buns in each, the child can practice multiplying three by eight to find out how many buns were purchased. Even seeing numbers in the environment gives kids a chance to practice basic facts. Use the numbers on a street sign to practice addition, subtraction, multiplication or division facts. Say, "This is 26th Street. What do you get when you divide six by two?"