Multiplication Tables

[CrunchyGirl]

I need ideas! DS is almost half way through SM2A and it looks like it's time for us to start working on multiplication tables (he gets the concept fine, it's about being faster at this point).

 

What are your best methods for learning them? I have the RS games book. Are there songs, rhymes, iPad apps, etc.? Ideally we'd like to go through 20 but I'll take 12 :)

[Heidi]

xtramath.com every day

[PollyOR]

Just watched

today where Maria Miller (Math Mammoth) explains how to drill multiplication facts. Hope it is helpful.

[JenniferLynn]

DD likes Timez Attacks.

[MrsBanjoClown]

2B really starts drilling the multiplication tables. I didn't expect ds to start memorizing them until we covered the sections in 2B. Right now he is working on the 4s and reviewing 2s and 3s.

[mommymonster]

School House Rock for a fun, catchy alternative.

[...................]

Times Tales worked wonders for both of my children. I followed it up with daily flashcards AND daily drills on paper.

[Mama2two]

Times Tales, RS games and lots of practice!

[mom2bee]

Mathfactcafe allows you to build your own math fact sheets. You can pick a range from 0-10 and any operation or mix of them that you want.

Timed Math Tests is available on amazon. Look at the linked products for similar products.

Math-drills.com has some handy multiplication tables and worksheets that go up to 12*12, that you can check out.

 

I have never used Singapores Primary Math, but I know that it teaches Mental math also, so I don't know if you want to wait for that to kick in but

have you considered teaching him how to exploit place value, distribution and addition to calculate 13-20 in case you have a problem finding good

resources to teach them by drill.

 

ie. recognizing that 13*10 is the same as (10+3)*10 so he can find the answer by adding 10*10 and 3*10 to get 100 +30 for 130.

likewise, 17*12 is the same thing as (10+7)*12 and if knows his 12 times tables, its simply a matter of adding 120 + 84 to get 204.

 

Again, someone else may have a better solution. I only replied because I knew of those resources for multiplication tables and you expressed an interest in teaching the multiplication tables up to 20.

[journey00]

xtramath.com every day

 

I second this! I HEART xtramath.org and it is free!! Rock n Learn Multiplication Rap dvd, School House Rock Multiplication. Mondo Math multiplication mp3 I downloaded from Amazon.

 

I haven't had to do any flash cards or teach memorization of multiplication tables with the above combination.

 

Best wishes!

[mytwomonkeys]

times tales with flashcards for review

[dbmamaz]

we did timez attacks on the pc and math ninja on the ipad

[Rush]

I've just ordered this puzzle http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B007B9GSMW/ref=gno_cart_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE

+ we are doing skip counting everyday

[kiwik]

I've just ordered this puzzle http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B007B9GSMW/ref=gno_cart_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE

+ we are doing skip counting everyday

 

I just got a clearance deal on a similar puzzle (9*9) and the matching addition one. Unfortunately the courier has got caught up in the holiday weekend.

 

Not sure how to use it yet I am just a resource freak.

[Ariston]

Times Tales worked for us. So painless and fast. Now that he knows them, we've moved to Timez Attack to work on speed.

[JDoe]

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/flashtopass-math-flash-cards/id415327499?mt=12

[duckens]

We use a flashmaster. It is not free, but you can take it in the car.

 

http://www.flashmaster.com/

 

You can also find it on Amazon.

[lillybell]

Times Tales and Timez Attack is what we used.

[OSUBuckeye]

Before "drilling" them, color 100s charts, or do patterns (circle, circle, triangle, circle, circle, triangle, and voila - all the triangles are threes. Same for 1,2,3,Square). Color by 2s, color by 3s, color by 4s, color by 7s, etc. You can laminate a paper 100s chart for reuse, or buy a 0.60 one on Resource Resource. Having ten paper ones colored out is a really cool tool.

 

Go to youtube and check out "Sixty Second Sweep" and get the gameboard by googling Sixty Second challenge. The multiplication chart is good for filling in/ learning the pattern, but it's not ideal for practicing all of the facts. Sixty second sweep covers all the same facts, but reduces the duplicates.

 

Fill out multiplication tables, or specific lines of the multiplication table, or a multiplication table with blanks in it or with specific numbers already filled in. Again, no pressure with this, this isn't for drill but for pattern discovery. You can blank out the higher numbers, or just fill in the bottom left half, the uncover the top right half and the kid will realize they can cheat (a.k.a. use the associative property). Math Mammoth does a good job of demonstrating these concepts, but I couldn't imagine using every page the way its laid out.

 

You can find Multiplication War cards. I think I got mine on Amazon for less than $3, and they've got a yellow box with blue cards and fish on them. I tutor, and I know a third grader who jumps up and down requesting that we play at the end of each session. A cool thing about them is that the kid has demonstrated the commutative property (that 3x4 and 4x3 are going to be equal) and he can compare the sizes (he'll see 6x7 and 3x5 and say, "aww, you won!" before doing the calculations). In my style of play, he calculates all the cards, and he gets to keep them whenever his card is higher than mine. I totally rig it and peek at my cards to have him win, though!

 

Also, some of those patterns aren't going to memorize themselves easily, so practice skipcounting. There's songs (7s is song to Happy Birthday, I think), but you could also have them read through a list of numbers like you would have them memorize a prayer. After a week or two, they'll have their skipcounts memorized.

 

Do area arrays. If you have pattern tiles from RightStart, you can lay them out and then have the kid count them (21) and then point out the edges are 7 wide and 3 long, and 7x3 is 21. Then once they've gotten the concept, hide most of a rectangle so they can't count, and have them guess then number of squares. They'll start using multiplication to get the right answer, and they'll feel smart because it was a "guess" and they didn't need to count.

 

For patterns, artistic problems, here are real-world examples of each number.

2s:legs, eyes, feet, hands, pairs (If you have four pairs of socks, how many socks?)

3: tricycles

4:chairs at a table in a Multiplication Restaurant, wheels on a car, legs on a dog/cat/horse

5:fingers on hands (great craft), or counting nickels.

6: insect legs

7: days in a week (on a calendar, every month has a 7, 14, 21, 28 pattern on it. Find one of the months with an extra line on it because it's a five week month, and have them predict what the next 7-day would be, answer: 35)

8: spider legs (Which is more, 3 spiders' legs or four insects' legs? Answer 8x3 = 24 = 6x4)

9: nines trick ( fold down the finger you're multiplying. Fingers to the left is the tens digit, fingers to the right is the ones digit. Also, in another method, show them that you take the number and subtract one to get the tens digit, and the tens and ones must add to 9. Thirdly, find 10x the number, and subtract the number.)

10s: dimes

You can also practice mental math by saying "Bob is having a party and he's inviting five people. Each of the five is getting three cupcakes. How many cupcakes does Bob need to bake?" Okay, Bob has eight friends, and they each get two cupcakes... Then for division, Bob has 20 cupcakes and needs to share them equally among 4 friends. Change Bob and his cupcakes and friends to whatever floats your child's boat (dinosaurs, hobbits, aliens, unicorns, carrot sticks, tea party princesses)

 

Finally, how to memorize the tricky facts:

56 =7x8 (five-six-seven-eight). That math fact is referenced in The Little Princess, and that's where I memorized it as a kid.

7x7=Forty-Niners (tell a gold rush story or maybe your son knows football.)

The perfect squares are hard to remember, so have your kid color them one day on a multiplication chart, and buiild them. Out of square objects. Count the squares on a tic-tac-toe board, draw a 4x4 board, a Bingo board, a Chess Board is 8x8, and a multiplication chart is 10x10). Which reminds me, on a multiplication chart, you can go the row and column, and count the squares within (3 rows, 5 columns: 15 squares). It works well visually with two pieces of string vertically and horizontally, lined up to cut across the multiplication chart. Again, it helps students see the relevance of the chart, because the chart predicts the counted answer)

 

Hope this helps. As you can see, I really like being hands-on with the multiplication tables, because it applies to so many concepts down the math pipeline. Saying "4x5=20" is different than being able to point out eight different ways in which you see that in real life.

[OSUBuckeye]

Also, since you want to teach him to 20s, teach it as (10+4) x 8 instead of 14x8. 10 x8 is 80 and 4x8 is 32, so the answer is 112.

 

Personally, I draw a box with the 10 + 4 above the two empty box/squares, and the 8 to the side. Then I do the two multiplications, writing their individual answers in their boxes (similar to a tiny multiplication chart) and add the products mentally. I wasn't taught this way, but after learning the box method for multiplying algebraic polynomials I have since converted everything into the box method.

Similarly, when doing multidigit multiplication 4567 x 34, you could draw a 4x2 box that's essentially (4000 + 500 + 60 + 7) on the top, and the two rows are 30 + 4. After you complete each one digit multiplication, you write it in the boxes. There becomes a simpler method, but it's a good conceptual tool for beginners.