Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.
We’ve been brushing up our addition and subtraction skills with Accelerated Individualized Mastery (AIM) for Addition and Subtraction from Math-U-See.
The Product
Intended for students age 8+ who should have mastered the addition and subtraction facts, the Accelerated Individualized Mastery (AIM) program uses the traditional Math-U-See manipulatives, or Integer Blocks.
The 22 lessons involve a video, manipulative work, and pen-and-paper activities in order to help students gain fluency with addition and subtraction facts.
AIM for Addition and Subtraction is a combination of physical and digital products. We received these physical materials:
- Resource Guide
- Math-U-See Integer Blocks
- colored pencils matching the Integer Blocks
- Math Fact Strategy Posters
- Fact Check Cards
Then we also received 12-months access to the AIM for Addition and Subtraction Digital Pack. The Digital Pack includes:
- Lesson Videos
- Lesson Guides/Solutions
- Activities
- Resources
How It Works
The program starts with the “Before AIM Assessment.” It’s a quick way to identify which addition and subtraction facts a student doesn’t know automatically within three seconds.
Elle is 9. She is well past addition and subtraction. She understands how it works and has several strategies for finding the answer. However, I know that she could use some support to get faster at those facts.
The video lessons are short and do a great job of helping students visualize the math problems and see relationships between numbers.
Kids higher than first grade can feel embarrassed to revisit what seems like a baby-ish topic. However, the videos don’t feel like they are directed at kindergarteners. I appreciate that the videos were respectful in not talking down to the students watching.
Ultimately the lessons were helpful, even for me as an adult! For example, the imagery of the number 8 being a double vacuum that sucks two units away from whatever number is being added to it will make adding 8 to any number much faster for me.
The Digital Pack includes all the printable worksheets that a student might need for additional practice as well as flashcards and ideas for games to reinforce the concepts.
But the real meat-and-potatoes of the program is the Integer Blocks.
No matter what a student’s preferred learning style, touching a math problem makes it stick. All our kids couldn’t get enough of doing activities with the Integer Blocks.
This was our first experience with any Math-U-See product. After going through some of the AIM for Addition and Subtraction Program, I can say that families who haven’t used Math-U-See before can easily jump in and figure out how it works.
It wasn’t overly complicated for me as a teacher, and the Digital Pack meant I could print off as many copies as needed to make sure a lesson was mastered.
The greater a student’s number sense and fluency with addition and subtraction, the greater chance they will find success in future more complicated mathematical processes.
For any families with a student who could use a little edge in mastering their addition and subtraction facts, I’d definitely recommend Math-U-See’s AIM program.
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