Learning the Multiplication Facts

Getting math facts to stick in little minds can be a definite challenge for any teacher, yet is so important that students learn their facts, especially multiplication. Beginning in second grade, students begin to learn the ins and outs of multiplication and build an understanding using pictures and manipulatives. Once third grade hits, multiplication gets even deeper with bigger numbers and the dreaded task of committing all those facts to memory. So, how can you make it a little more fun? How can you get students to want to practice? I have found several ways throughout the years. Here are five fun ways you can make memorizing the times tables a little bit easier.

1.  Sing your facts. Really, find songs that help the students memorize the facts.  I recently purchased a set of songs that are to the tune of popular songs on the radio. The students beg to hear these songs during their lunch time (we eat lunch in the classroom).

2. Do speed drills. Sure, this will not please every kid in class, but what will? The goal is to reach as many as you can. I loved drills as a kid. Lots of kids love it because it feels like a race. We do a one minute drill sheet that focuses on the fact set that we are learning that week. We drill once a week. Students have one minute to write all the answers they can. After that, they write each fact and write those they missed three times. With this model, you see improvement daily. Students get so excited when they tell me that they beat their score from the day before.

3.  Make flashcards. My students have their own set of flashcards that they practice with each day. The way to make it more fun is to have them quiz a partner. Add a timer to the mix and you just ramped up the enjoyment by about 90%. I use sand timers. The students flash the cards to their partner over and over until the one minute is up. While timing their partner, they have to play close attention. If their partner misses a problem, they will tell the answer. Then the other partner will repeat the fact and answer three times before moving on to the next card.

4.  Play games. There are so many games that are so easy to play.

Class Games:  We love to play whole class games such as Around the World, The Stand Up Game, and Multiplication Relay.  

Around the World: Two students stand together at a time. I flash a card and the first student to say the correct answer moves on to the next student. The student that misses, sits down. Continue around the class until every child has had a chance to play. This is a quick and easy one.

The Stand Up Game: Everyone stands up. I use flashcards or just shout out a fact and call on a student. If they answer correctly, they stay standing. If they miss, they sit down. Last one standing wins, or whoever is still standing when the time is up will be proclaimed a winner.

Multiplication. On one side of the field, form two lines. One is team A, the other team B. Halfway down the field is bucket of fact cards for each team. The teacher stands on the other side of the field. When the teacher says go, one student from each team runs to the bucket, grabs a fact, runs to the teacher and says the answer. If a student does not know the answer, he or she must return to their team to get help. Once they know the correct answer, they run to the teacher and tell the answer. The team that answers all their cards first wins.                                                                    

Table Games: I invested in a few times tables games. My students love the game Speed. Another one I use is called………………………………

Computer Games: There are sites on the computer that also have games to practice times tables. One that I have used a lot with my class is multiplication.com. Students can focus on one fact set at a time.

Partner Games: I also love making quick and easy partner games for my class to use during math rotations. Whenever I introduce a new game, students are so excited and ready to practice their facts

5. Host a Multiplication Mania week. Why not kick off your learning of the times tables with a super-focused week of multiplication fun? Spend extra time playing games, singing songs, doing multiplication activities (such as arrays with food or multiplication crafts)? It is fun to do and will be sure to get your kids excited about multiplication.

Find this game here: Search and Rescue: An I-Spy Game

I hope these tips and tricks help you in your own journey into getting your class to learn the times tables. Below are some links to some of the games mentioned above. Simply click the picture and you will be taken to the site where you can find the resource.

Besides the fact that, at least at my school, soccer is a big deal, I find that tying reading into other subjects, students not only learn more, but go deeper. The book, The Floating Field: How a Group of Thai Boys Built Their own Soccer Field is the perfect book to link in other content areas. Let me explain how I use this book in my classroom.

First of all, most students in elementary have probably never even heard of Thailand before, so this is the perfect opportunity to expand the reaches of your classroom to include a more global world view. In this book, students will learn a bit of culture as well as differences between the way they live and the way children in developing countries live. They will see the discrepancies and will learn about determination and not giving up when working toward a goal. 

Speaking of goals, this is an absolutely great book for teaching goal setting. In the book, some boys set a goal to create their own soccer field and despite the fact that others in the village do not believe in them, and make comments about it, they set about to reach the goal, working tirelessly to make it a reality. While most teachers and classrooms set goals at the beginning of the school year, it is important to set goals throughout it. We just finished the first quarter of the year. I talked with my students about ways they can do even better next quarter, whether it be in a certain academic subject of a study habit or in general behavior. Each student set a goal for this coming quarter, just like we set a goal at the beginning of the year. Setting goals is important and gives students something to strive for. We used the soccer theme of this book to create a craftivity explaining our goals and how we can reach them. Then we posted them up on a bulleting board.

Reading through this book together and stopping to ask questions a discuss is a great way to get students thinking and comprehending what they are reading. I created a set of comprehension questions to guide our thinking as we read. The questions led to some great observations and conversations. 

Bringing in another content area, besides just reading, was a cinch with this book. The book is about boys who dream of a floating soccer field. So bringing in the idea of floating and density is the perfect way to tie in a bit of science. After reading the book we did two different science activities that has to do with density and floating. In both activities, we followed the scientific process as we went. First we did a science experiment using eggs. We put an egg into a cup of water to observe whether if floated or sank. Of course it sank. We then removed the egg and added in some salt, allowing it to dissolve before once more adding in the egg. This time, the egg floated. We documented our learning and talked about what happened and how the salt made the water more dense and how it was then able to keep the egg afloat. 

The second experiment we did was to create a floating rainbow (density column). In this experiment we started with four cups of water and colored each of them using regular food color in different colors. We added increasing amounts of sugar to each of the cups and carefully poured some of each color into a graduated cylinder. When done correctly, you see each color separately, hence the floating rainbow. The students were truly amazed at this one. Again we talked about density and why the colors did not mix. 

As a final project for this book, we did a S.T.E.M. challenge. Students were placed in groups of four and each group had to use the supplies we had to create a model of the floating soccer field. Their field had to be at least one foot long and in the end had to float while holding a team of soccer players, weighed down with rocks to add some weight. For building the soccer fields, students had supplies like these: Styrofoam sheets, bubble wrap, aluminum foil, wax paper, cardboard, large popsicle sticks, pipe cleaners, fruit netting, etc. 

This challenge was great and all of the students were successful. 

You can find this resource here. 

 

Rounding Roundup

What is it about the skill of rounding that is so difficult for third graders, and beyond? I just do not understand, but every year the students seem to have a hard time grasping the concept of estimation and often we end up spending extra time going through the same math skills to allow more time for students to master this important skill. So many other skills build off of this one, so I want my students to have a good grasp before moving along. I know this cannot just be me. 

Mastering the Skill of Rounding

Here are some things that have helped me along the way while teaching my students about rounding:

1. First, I discovered this little chant that easily gets stuck in their heads and has all the steps for rounding. I use it to demonstrate rounding work. 

Mark your place.

Look next door. 

Five or greater,

Add one more. 

Numbers in front,

Stay the same. 

Numbers behind, 

zero's their name. 

This little rhyme seemed to make the biggest difference this year overall in the mastery of the skill of rounding. I found this one over at Lucky Little Learners and it saved my sanity, seriously! 

2. I have tried this rounding game activity in the past and it was a more hands on way of doing rounding. It worked, and I loved it...but it took so long. However, most students were able to master the skill with a ton of practice. 

3. Regular math books. We use Go Math for our curriculum, so we go through the unit on Place Value, and that introduces that skill of rounding. 

Rounding Math Reinforcement

This year, I knew that after we learned the skill, we would need time to continue practicing and reinforcing it for higher success and to make it stick with the students even better. I decided that I wanted to create some center games for math time that students could rotate through to continue practicing this very important estimation skill. So, I created four Rounding Rodeo themed games for my classroom to try out. They have been having fun using these and continuing to build their mastery of rounding. 

Rounding Games

The first game is:

Western Roundup

In this game students will roll a die to advance their pawn around the board which is designed like an old western town. If they land on a black number, they will round to the 10's place. If they land on a red number they round to the 100's. Each time that a number is correctly estimated, the student will pick up the horse game piece with the matching number. Continue around the board until all horses are gone. Whoever rounded up the most horses wins the game. 

 

Rounding Rodeo: an I-Spy Game:

In this game, students flip over a card and race to find the correctly rounded number on a board filled with rodeo clipart and numbers. It is like a giant scavenger hunt. The student who correctly finds the number first will place a chip or marker over the number. Whoever has the most chips or markers on the board at the end wins the game. 

Rounding Race

In this game, students race to be the first one around the trail of spaces on the board. After flipping a number card over, students spin a spinner that tells them if they will round to the tens or hundreds. After rounding correctly, the student will spin another spinner to see how far they can move along the trail. Along the way are a scattering of spaces that allow the students to advance extra, or could cause them to return a few spaces or even miss a turn. 

Round 'em Up

In this game, students take turns drawing a card. Each card asks them to round a certain number to either the tens or hundreds place. After rounding, the student will keep their card. Students will continue taking turns. Occasionally on a turn, students will draw one of these two cards: Ouch! or YeeHaw!

In that case....

For the ouch card, students will return one of their cards. For the yeehaw card, they will return all of their cards. They do not return the ouch or yeehaw cards through, just set those to the side. When the cards run out or time ends, students will count their points. Each horse card counts for one point, and each bull card counts for five. Whoever has the most points, wins.  

Round Up Four

Students choose a spinner. Different spinners allow for different levels of play. The spinners go all the way from basic rounding of three-digit numbers to rounding six-digit numbers. 

In this game, students will roll the amount of dice that correspond to the spinner they choose. They will line up the dice in any order and then spin the spinner. The student will round the number according to the spinner space they landed on. If the answer is right, they can cover one space on the playing board. The students will take turns going back and forth. Whoever covers four in a row first is the winner. 

Future Plans for Math Center Rotations

It is my goal to continue creating math center activities for each math unit. I feel that this will continue to allow my students to spiral through the math skills already learned and retain those important skills better. We can do better than teaching math in a one-and-done way. 

You can find the resources mentioned right here.