Easy Way to Teach Kids With a Hard Time Memorizing Mutiplication Facts

Memorizing multiplication facts via flashcards is not the only way to learn the times tables. Research shows that students will be more likely to retain information if they are engaged while learning it. When the activities are meaningful, the students can apply real-life context to math facts. So, how do you teach multiplication facts?

What is the best way to teach multiplication? Multiplication tables aren't the only way for students to learn their facts! Find out with these 5 activities for multiplication to help your students learn their facts.

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1. Introduce Equal Groups to Teach Multiplication Facts

One easy way to learn multiplication is focus on equal groups. Learning to create equal groups is the foundation for multiplication and the most natural way students begin interacting with multiplication.

Have students brainstorm things that come in pairs, triads, and so on. Start with things that come in two's and record on an anchor chart all the things they can come up with.

Try using anchor charts, or oversized sticky notes, to have students record their ideas. This grouping activity is a great way to help your students understand the basics of multiplication. This blog post has more information on how to help students generate ideas of things that come in groups as well as examples for each number.

Once you have a good list of items, ask students questions, like how many fingers are on three people? How many wheels are on four cars?

Help students figure out the answer and use tools (paper, pencil, drawings, counting blocks) to come up with the answer. This helps build their conceptual understanding of equal groups.

2. Play Games to Learn Multiplication Facts

Kids LOVE playing games. Here are a few multiplication game ideas that will help reinforce the basic facts. You can even reinforce key concepts while you teach multiplication facts.

Multiplication War

In the traditional game of War, each player flips over a card, and the highest face value wins that round. In Multiplication War, the players will turn over two cards each, multiply them together, and state the answer. The winner of each round is the player with the highest product!

Multiplication Board Games

Kids love games! There are some great board games available that focus on multiplication. Here are a few popular ones:

Pet Me focuses on the concepts of equal groups and sharing.

SiEque is a board game with flashcards and some speed!

Prime Climb is a great game for your more advanced kiddos. It uses all four operations and strategy to reach the goal.

3. Build Arrays & Area Models to Teach Multiplication Facts

Help students design a series of rows and columns to introduce the area model of multiplication. Rather than just arranging an array on paper, make it a game!

An Array Game to Practice Multiplication Facts

This Array Game has students compete against each other to fill the most space on grid paper. Not only does this help reinforce the area model for multiplication, it also builds spacial awareness.

Extend the Area Model for Multiplication

This Area Model Activity one of my favorite projects to do in second grade or third grade. Before doing this activity, I introduce students to the concept of one number having many different area arrangements. You can check out how we do that in this post.

After building the concept, I assign pairs of students specific numbers to cut out of graph paper. Students do both an expression and it's opposite (3×2 and 2×3) so that they can see how the array changes.

See this Area Model Activity in action here.

4. Use Skip Counting Memorize Multiplication Patterns

Help students recognize patterns as they count by multiples. Recite and write multiples of three, for example.

Your students will soon recognize that 3, 6, 9 are multiples of three or 3×1, 3×2, 3×3, and so on. Make it fun with online games like Number Bubble Skip Counting! Pop the bubbles as they float above the correct treasure chest.

Skip Counting Songs

There are a ton of skip counting songs available on the internet and on YouTube. You'll have to see which ones resonate with you and your students.

Here are a few of the ones we have enjoyed. I have focused on the side of simplicity rather than complicated graphics and animation. Once you have the tune down, you can sing these songs without the video or have students lead the singing.

YouTube has a TON of multiplication music videos to choose from as well. Have your students watch a few fun multiplication songs and vote for their favorite videos!

5. Number Puzzles are a Fun Activity to Learn Multiplication

Puzzles are a great way to engage students and build their problem-solving skills. Help students interpret the products of whole numbers through contexts like the relationship of numbers, an expression, and a model. Put together the pieces to get the whole picture and really understand how to solve a multiplication problem.

I have Number Puzzles for all Third Grade Multiplication & Division standards.

Try puzzles with word problems as well! These puzzles are ready to print for your students.

Learning multiplication facts can be a daunting task, but gone are the days of simple memorization without a clear understanding of the learning task.

These 5 activities to help your students learn their multiplication facts are sure to help them develop the skills needed to succeed in math!

Help Students Focus on the Hardest Facts

Don't forget that students can narrow down the number of multiplication facts that they need to memorize. Did you know that there are really only 21 hard facts that need memorizing? Check out this blog post to find out why!

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Source: https://www.whatihavelearnedteaching.com/teach-multiplication-facts/

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