Fact Family Worksheets

Fact Family Worksheets

Whether you're looking to fill in the gaps in your math facts, looking for a new way to learn multiplication or division, or just after a comprehensive review, the fact family worksheets in this section will surely give your students a thorough workout. Each set of fact family worksheets in this section is structured as a timed test, but you can use them for simple practice. There are sets for addition and subtraction fact families as well as multiplication and division fact families, with different worksheets focusing on different fact families, along with a mix of fact family problems from previous steps. Going through these worksheets progressively will develop a solid mastery of two math operations and simultaneously the relationships between them.

If your student is already comfortable with the concept of both operations in a fact family (division AND multiplication, or subtraction AND addition) but hasn't yet memorized all of their math facts, these fact family worksheets may be a great alterative to math fact drills that focus on only a single operation. If you're trying to get ahead of the pack quickly, fact families may be the key!

What is a Fact Family?

A fact family is a set of three numbers making up four related math facts involving one operator and it's inverse. Fact families exist because addition and multiplication operations are commutative, which is just a fancy way of saying the order of their arguments isn't important. For example, the fact that 3+9 and 9+3 both equal 12 demonstrates the commutative property. The first two members of our fact family are then 2+4=6 and 4+2=6. Also, addition and subtraction are inverse operations, so our fact family also includes 12-3=9 and 12-9=3. So, we have a fact family that includes the facts 3+9=12, 9+3=12, 12-3=9 and 12-9=3. This particular fact family all involve 3, 9 and 12, so you might name refer to this as the 'addition fact family for 3 9 12' or something similar. Or if that's too long, just call them the Smiths, but try to keep them apart from the Jonses!

Multiplication and division fact families are structured similarly, they just use different operations. Multiplication and division are both inverse operations, so the structure of the fact family is the same for these operations. An example of a multiplication and division fact family would be one involving 3, 4 and 12. Our facts in this case would be 3×4=12, 4×3=12, 12÷3=4 and 12÷4=3.

Use these fact family worksheets to practice all of familial relationships and learn those missing math facts!