FREE Math Review

Love your non-spiral Math curriculum, but need a way to incorporate Math review without using a second curriculum? After all, the old saying ‘use it, or lose it’ is most definitely accurate. Brain research shows connections made in your brain fizzle out and die when they aren’t used. (Um, not exactly technical jargon used there, lol.)

I wanted to share two methods I’ve been using this year to incorporate Math review FREE (we teachers know free often means for the cost of paper and ink!). The worksheets I’m using are found free on the web, are black and white only, and print wonderfully with my printers ink saving setting.

First, I keep a list of Math topics we’ll need to review in my teacher’s guide. I cycle through the topics, so they are getting constant review. I usually review 3-5 topics each week, but you could schedule this as you see fit for your students’ needs.

Then I print off the worksheets for the topics we’ll review for the week, as well as the answer keys for my ease of use. For example, this week we are reviewing long division, reducing fractions, and least common multiples. I’ll print off the three worksheets and corresponding answer keys. I three hole punch the worksheets and put them in the Math section of the students’ binders. I staple the answer keys together and put them in a pocket on the Math tab in my teacher’s guide, for easy removal and use, pictured below.

The worksheets, three hole punched and in the kids’ binders.

Currently I’m assigning 3 problems per page per day; we usually review 5 topics a week. This is only 15 problems for the student to complete for review, but it covers 5 topics. This week we only have 3 review topics, so they only need to complete 9 problems for review. I aim to keep the review section of our Math lesson under 15 minutes. This works well for us, but you could use the resources however you want. Sometimes we review the same topics two weeks in a row, other times the topics change each week. Below are the three websites I like to use and examples worksheets from each.

worksheetworks – a variety of Math topics: beginning Math, basic facts, multi-digit operations, decimals, percents, geometry, factoring, time, money, pre-Algebra, and more. For some topics you can choose a grid, pictured below, to help students line up answers appropriately. There are usually two number fonts, font size, number of problems, whether to show first answer, and answer key or no, to choose as well.

math-drills.com – a large variety of topics, like above. You can choose to print the answer key or not by changing the pages to print in your printer options box.

themathworksheetsite – a variety of topics covered. You can choose an answer key or no, and for multi-digit multiplication, for example, you can choose the number of digits in the multiplicand and multiplier.

The second way to use these resources for review is to print only the answer keys to the topics you want to review and use either a whiteboard or chalkboard. The teacher writes the problem(s) and optionally watches the student complete the problem(s). I like to incorporate this method, especially if there is a topic where the student is missing answers, as it allows me to watch the steps the student is taking and diagnose where the problem lies. Then I know exactly how to assist them.