Multiplication Fun

Natalie made it through the 4's with our last game so this week we made up another game for 5's.

Here's what I needed:

Electrical tape

Lazy Susan

Scrapbook Number stickers

Here's what you do:

Section off Lazy Susan into sections for numbers 0 - 12

Create an arrow on the table out of electrical tape

Place scrapbook # stickers 0-12 in each section

Start spinning and have fun.

5 multiplied whatever # the arrow is pointing to after each spin.

Multiplication Fun - Playing Cards

Natalie made it through the 3's without a hitch. Woohoo! The egg carton was fun and we may revisit for another set of #'s but for now it's adios egg carton game and hello playing cards. For the 4's we will be using our "modified" set of playing cards to play card games to help learn and reninforce our 4's multiplication tables. Last night we played pick a card, high card, and another game we made up.

Here's what you do:

Find a set of playing cards...old ones are preferred because we are marking them up a little. If you have rook cards you wouldn't have to mark them up, but I didnt' want to lose my rook cards so I bought a cheap deck of cards and got the markers out.

Get out the A-K and mark them up. If you have a joker to use as a zero you can get out the A-Q. I made my Ace a 1, Joker a 0, Jack a 11, and Queen a 12.

For the first game I shuffled the cards and spread them out in my hand. I said pick a card any card to make it more fun and she started selecting. When she selected the card she had 5 to 10 seconds to shout out what 4 multiplied by that number is. If she got it right she won the card. Whoever had the most cards when all cards were selected wins.

Next Game I divided the cards into 2 stacks. We then both flipped our cards over and yelled the answer to what 4 multiplied by the number was. Whoever had the highest card one.

The next game is basically the same with the exception that I spread the cards out to look like a memory game and we flipped the cards that way. Since there is an uneven number of cards whoever wins the last set, wins the remaining card if they get the answer right.

We had a good time "playing cards" last night while learing multiplication.

These games are fun for your child and they almost forget they are learning at the same time. In addition to the games we play we also every couple of days make a practice test and set the minute on the oven timer to make sure she is getting the information from the games to the paper. This helps reinforce learning and gets her practice for how the test will be in the classroom.

I hope you have fun mixing it up a little. Check back in two weeks. Hopefully we will be soaring to our 5's.

Fun Ways to Learn Multiplication

Natalie is in 3rd grade and they are learning their multiplication tables. She is her mother's daughter in that she gets bored easily :). She mastered her two's by just doing the boring old let's practice your multiplication table and I'll set the timer to one minute on the oven but when it came to 3's she was a fussy mussy. She didn't want to practice them. I tried playing a game in the car where I asked her one and then she asked me one but that only lasted about 5 minutes before the boredom and I don't want to do this syndrome rolled in. I feel for her. I was getting sick of asking them to her as well. So for each set of numbers I plan on coming up with a fun way to learn the set of multiplication tables. So without further ado...Here is week 1 for the 3 times table but you could use it for every # if you want.

Here is what I did for the 3's:

• Go to Fridge


• Pull out an Egg Carton


• remove all Eggs (otherwise this could get messy)


• Take a pen or sharpie in my case and write the #'s 0-11 in the holes where the eggs go


• Then write a 12 on the bottom flap


• Cut off the top of the carton with scissors or it rips off pretty easily


• Get a piece of candy or some other object that will fit in the holes of the egg carton and start tossing

How to Play

• Take "tossing object" and throw toward Egg Carton


• Mom or whoever is over "the game" yells 3 times "whatever # you land in" and the child yells out the number. If the object does not go into a hole that's when they have to answer 3 times 12.

So far we have played 2 nights in a row and my daughter can not get enough of it.

I hope you enjoy this game. Check back for more ideas as we go through the entire multiplication table.