Math teachers: best way to learn x's tables?

[meajuly5]

Kumon workbooks. They build very incrementally. It is all drill work but the order is important to retain the facts so don't skip the pages that seem too easy. It's meant to start easy and reiterate facts. It fills in all the gaps. Strict arithmetic so no theory but excellent for basic skills.

 

[3doodlebugsmom]

When my kids were learning their times tables, we played a game using a deck of cards. Say you are working on the 4 table. I would lay the 4 card face up on the table. In my hand I would hold the ace through queen cards. With the ace equal to one, the jack equal to 11 and the queen equal to 12. DD would pick a card out of my hand, and multiply it against the four on the table. If she got it right, she kept the card, if she didn't get it right, or took to long to answer, I would give the correct answer, and the card went back into my hand. The idea of the game was to get all the cards out of my hand and over to her.

All my kids enjoyed playing this game. We would play every night after dinner. It was a good way to see which math facts were giving them trouble. And if they had trouble with something like 4x7 them sometimes a few extra sevens wound up in my hand.

It was a quick, fun, interactive game that worked for learning multiplication.

 

[Bella the Ball 360]

0s, 1s, 2s, 4s, 5s, 10s, and 11s can easily be taught through simple logic

"anything times 0 is 0"
"anything times 1 is the same number"
"anything times 2 is a double"
"anything times 4 is the number doubled and then doubled again"
"anything times 5 is like counting by 5s"
"anything times 10, add a 0"
"anything times 11 is the same number twice"

For 9s, you can do the finger trick. Have the child hold up all 10 fingers.

9x1 put down her left pinky. Count all #s to the put down finger = 9

9x2 put down left ring finger. Number to the left of put down = 1, other side of put down finger = 8 which when put together is 18

9x3 put down left middle finger. Number to the left of the put down = 2, other side of put down finger = 8 which when put together is 27

it contines to go on like this.

Hope that helps. Now you just have to work on 3s, 6s, 7s, & 8s

I agree once you have 0, 1, 2 5, 9, 10, 11 you also have those on the 3's 6's and 7's tables so really you only need to learn 5 facts each on those tables and you are done.

 

[leebee]

Memorization is the way to go. I teach math in a K-5 resource room as well as work with 7th and 8th graders for 30 minutes a day. I tell them all: The VERY best thing they can do to prepare themselves for middle/high school, college, and life is to memorize the multiplication facts. Once they have the facts down (we use flash cards and teaching them to skip count, i.e., counting by 2s, counting by 3s, etc... there are known tunes to go with each), they all seem to like drilling on the laptop. We use thatquiz.org (this is a GREAT math site... all kinds of topics, you can set the level and # of problems, it shows you what you got wrong and why,etc) and ixl.com (ixl isn't free, but I think thatquiz is). On the iPad, the kids like the Math Bingo app. You do the problems and it awards you bungee bugs. You build up your bugs and then get to play a shooting game with them.

That's all I can think of for now. If I find my list of skip-count tunes, I'll post it tomorrow.

 

[dimimi]

I am an intervention specialist and I teach Math. We practice counting by 2's, 3's and 5's ....over and over again.

I teach the finger trick, but I also teach: 9 x 9: 81 one less than 9 is 8, 8 plus 1 = 9 That works for all of the 9's. Both ways work.

7 x 8 is 56.... I call it the 5,6,7,8 rule.

If you take out a blank multiplication chart and fill in all of the 0's, 1's, 2's, 3's, 5's, and 9's, there isn't much left to learn! That usually motivates the kids.

Also, I give them a page of 2's over and over again. Then a page of 3's over and over again. Then we do 0, 1, 2, 3.

There are a lot of multiplication games on the computer and ipad too.

Have fun. Once your child gets frustrated, it is time to stop for a while.

 

[NJdadof2]

www.ixl.com is a great website for math. My DS 7 loves it. I have found that many of my high school students live it as well.

Good luck.

 

[Iforgetmypassword]

"anything times 11 is the same number twice"

So, 10 x 11 is 1010? 11 x 11 is 1111?

 

[RebeccaUC]

I am a teacher and have introduced multiplication to a number of classes of second and third graders now. You've been given a lot of good advice above already, but just some thoughts...

Make sure your son/daughter think of multiplication as repeated addition. For example, what I mean is 3x6 is "three groups of six- 6+6+6=18" OR "six groups of three- 3+3+3+3+3+3=18. If they think of it as "groups of" something they can use addition facts they already know quickly to get the answer. Eventually it becomes more automatic.

It is vital that they are very fluent in addition before they can memorize multiplication facts. Also the tricks are great to help, just be careful because some rely on it and never generalize that math understanding- of what multiplication really means.
This is always the only time I tell my students that they have to memorize! Try multiplication.com for timed tests they can do. My district has a wonderful program called Fasttmath (spelled like that) though I'm not sure if it's commercially available.

Good luck!

 

[lajones81]

In my classroom, we use The Math Facts Fixer.

http://www.mathfactsfixer.com/

The program is made for classrooms, but you can easily implement the practices at home.

For home practice, we also offer Xtra Math to our students.

https://www.xtramath.org/

This is a free website where you track fact progress. This information can be shared with parents and teachers alike.

 

[elaine amj]

My kids and I werr just doing multiplications! My DDs trick (that she told me 2 secs before I read this post) for the 15 times table is to think of it as a clock. 15x1 is the quarter hr, 15x2 is the half hr, 15x3 is quarter to (45).

Never thought abt it like that before. I always just skip counted lol.

 

[OceanAnnie]

0s, 1s, 2s, 4s, 5s, 10s, and 11s can easily be taught through simple logic

"anything times 0 is 0"
"anything times 1 is the same number"
"anything times 2 is a double"
"anything times 4 is the number doubled and then doubled again"
"anything times 5 is like counting by 5s"
"anything times 10, add a 0"
"anything times 11 is the same number twice"

For 9s, you can do the finger trick. Have the child hold up all 10 fingers.

9x1 put down her left pinky. Count all #s to the put down finger = 9

9x2 put down left ring finger. Number to the left of put down = 1, other side of put down finger = 8 which when put together is 18

9x3 put down left middle finger. Number to the left of the put down = 2, other side of put down finger = 8 which when put together is 27

it contines to go on like this.

Hope that helps. Now you just have to work on 3s, 6s, 7s, & 8s

For my kids, I told them:

0 is an eraser

1 is a mirror

2 is a doubler

That was a good start for them.

I am a teacher and have introduced multiplication to a number of classes of second and third graders now. You've been given a lot of good advice above already, but just some thoughts...

Make sure your son/daughter think of multiplication as repeated addition. For example, what I mean is 3x6 is "three groups of six- 6+6+6=18" OR "six groups of three- 3+3+3+3+3+3=18. If they think of it as "groups of" something they can use addition facts they already know quickly to get the answer. Eventually it becomes more automatic.

It is vital that they are very fluent in addition before they can memorize multiplication facts. Also the tricks are great to help, just be careful because some rely on it and never generalize that math understanding- of what multiplication really means.
This is always the only time I tell my students that they have to memorize! Try multiplication.com for timed tests they can do. My district has a wonderful program called Fasttmath (spelled like that) though I'm not sure if it's commercially available.

Good luck!

 

[Disney Hot Mama]

My kids learned by memorization, singing songs and learning wrap-ups too.

http://www.learning-materials.com/istar.asp?a=6&id=15534

Multiplication Rap CD
http://www.learning-materials.com/istar.asp?a=6&id=39674

Constant drilling of these math facts and some fun times tests work as well.

 

[whatname]

Thanks for all the replies. You have given me some good ideas. We have looked at some of the websites mentioned. I think we will try some card games as well. You have given us a new outlook. It was getting tedious. I guess we will just keep at it and keep at it.

Interestingly, DD is in 3rd grade and the curriculum, from which the teacher is not supposed to deviate, does not include memorizing multiplication facts. Fortunately, this teacher has the wisdom to make the kids learn them. She said she doesn't know how they will manage next year in math if they don't know the times tables.

Thanks again for all the ideas. If you have anymore, I'm open. You have re-energized me.

 

[EnduringWone]

Teach skip counting, one through fifteen.

as in 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15

2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28,30

and so on.

There are songs on YouTube to help with memorization.

I know it seems silly, but it really works!

My daughter is in third grade and she is a wiz at her multiplication.

 

[emer95]

I teach 3rd grade. Along with all of the other great advice you've received, I wanted to add one of my tricks. Certain facts just seem to be tough for kids to memorize, so I use songs and/or rhymes for a lot of things.

6 x 8
Six and eight went on a date and ended up with 48. (Said in a singsongy way)

8 x 4
Eight times four is 32, 32, 32,
Eight times four is 32 and now you know it's true (Mary had a Little Lamb)

9 x 6 is 54, shut your mouth and say no more!
(That's from my own 3rd grade teacher, one hundred years ago!)

There are many more that I've made up along the way. It sounds like more work, but for auditory learners it really helps.

 

[Jedana]

anything x0 = 0
anything x1 = that number
anything x2 = always evens
anything x3= odd, even, odd, even, odd, even (3, 6,9,12,)
anything x4=always even repeating last numbers (4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24, 28, etc (48260)
anything x5= always ends in zero or five
anything x6= always evens repeating last numbers 6, 12, 18, 24, 30, 6, 42 (6,2,8,4,0)
anything x7= odd, even, odd even (7, 14, 21, 28)
anything x8= always evens (8, 16, 24, 32, 40) repeating (8,6,4,2,0)

anything x9= two tricks. one number goes up, the other down. 9, 18, 27, 36). Also--if you add the two digits together, they add up to 9--90, 81, 72, etc--only works to 10's. At 11's, you have to ignore both rules. At 12, they start back up--108, 117, 126, 135, etc

anything x10= add a zero to the end

 

[PollyannaMom]

Answering both as a mom of a former 3rd grader, and as a teacher in later math courses -

I second the old Schoolhouse Rock songs! I used to play them in the car while DS was a "trapped audience", and it really helped him.

We also played "multiplication bingo". (Roll dice or draw two cards for the numbers to multiply. Cover the answer on your board.) I put fun things in some of the squares (like tell a joke, or get a free chip) and had little prizes for getting bingo, so it was fun to play over and over. Eventually, I would give him a blank bingo board and a filled-in multiplication chart. He could write any numbers from the chart in any of the spaces, using each number only once. The idea here is for the kids realize some of the numbers will show up a lot more often than others! - That part really helps them understand that there are different ways to break up the same number and helps with factoring later on in algebra.

 

[Piper]

I think part of the battle is "have to" vs "want to."

One year I got a second grade class that was really struggling with addition and subtraction. I told them that if they learned to add and subtract multiple digit numbers, that I would "let" them learn their multiplication tables (even though they weren't "supposed" to learn them until third grade.) Every child in the class not only learned addition and subtraction, but knew all their X tables as well. They were very eager to do it!

 

[mickyzzzzz05]

For some students the flash card system does not work. If you combine the flash cards with large movement tactical it can "imprint" the multiplication facts in their brain.

In the past I tutored students having issues with this and one of the successful techniques was taking the flash cards, a large flat pan with sides (like a jelly roll pan) and rice.

The rice should be thick enough that when you draw through it with your finger that it leaves an impression that is easily read.

You sit across the table from the child, show a flash card that has the answer printed below and they repeat verbally the information on the card. "One times one equals one". Then they draw the numbers in the rice just as written on the card and ALSO verbalizing "One times one equals one." Then on to the next one.

One teacher who had a student who was struggling with this called me and I told about the process. She had been working with this child for weeks and the student just could not remember. I received another phone call from the teacher 5 days later. She used the process in school and the parents used it at home and in 5 days the student was easily able to do all of the numbers up to 9.

It has to do with the repetition verbally, combined with the large muscle movements through the rice.

After they are successful in going through the facts, you will be able to turn the cards over to the side that just shows the problem. You will know when they are ready for that. They should still write it in the rice the first few times and then move to writing it on paper.

Good luck.

 

[whatname]

Thanks again for all the replies. These are some great ideas. We worked with some songs tonight: 7x4 is 28, 28, 28. 7x4 is 28 oh the doo da day!

I like the rice thing and the games and alot of the other things. I think we will just keep trying different things. It helps to learn in different ways and keeps it exciting.

Thanks so much! This is really helpful.