How To Teach Students Their Times Tables
I often tell my students the best way to learn times tables is through memorisation. You just have to practice and practice. You can always skip count aloud, write them out a zillion times, make missing patterns, do maths challenges or time yourself to make it more fun.
Here are some tricks I share with my students:
Find a poster of all the times tables (or write them all out) and cross out which ones you know off by heart and can say quickly. You will then see it's not that many you have to learn, maybe 33. If you focus on learning three a day for 11 days then you will know them all in under two weeks. Easy!
The hardest times table I think is 7 x 6 = 42 so learn this one first and it get’s it out of the way. You can make up rhymes to remember them such as 7 x 7 is 49 we'll be fine, 8 x 8 is 64, shut the door
Start with the times tables that you do know and count on from there. It's quicker and a good starting point when you are learning. Practice first these ones until you can say them really fast then work on the others, that is the 0, 1, 2, 5, 10, 11 times tables.
It is perfectly okay to use your fingers when you are skip counting. In fact I encourage it.
You can also hang up a poster to look at but the trick is that you must remember to read it. What use is it if its just there but your not taking it in? A good idea is to practice or listen to a times table CD before you go to bed so they are going through your mind while you are sleeping.
Write the ones you need to learn on flash cards and put the answers on the back to practice. Look at them several times a day; on the bus or in the car, keep them in your lunch box and read them every snack break, or put them on post it notes on your bed frame to read every time you go into your room.
Make up a comic about a boy/girl who is trying to learn his timetables and it might help you too.
Multiplication is repeated addition so if you are good at adding you will probably be good at multiplication. 6x4 is the same as six, four times 6+6+6+6
Focus some time on learning your doubles, they are fun to know 1x1, 2x2, 3x3, 4x4 etc
Remember any number multiplied by zero is zero. Any number multiplied by one stays the same. Any number multiplied by ten just adds a zero. Any number multiplied by two is just your doubles.
Most people can count by fives. Otherwise remember when multiplying by five, divide the other number by two and multiple it by ten.
Counting by tens is the easiest. Start there. Then work on fives, and twos.
There is a finger trick for your nines. Hold your fingers up, palms facing you. If you want to know 9 x 4. Put down your fourth finger from the left. Then count how many fingers on the left and how many fingers on the right of that 4th finger. You should have three on one side and six on the other, put those two numbers together and the answer is 36.
11's are fun. Any number multiplied by 11 is just that number twice.
The four times tables are just double your twos. Or another way of looking at it is if multiplying by four, double the number and then double it again.
The six times tables are just double your three times tables. Learn your threes first before starting on the sixes.
Remember that all the answers for twos, fours, sixes, eights and 12’s are all even numbers.
Fun thing - The answers for the nine times tables always add up to nine, so if you add the two numbers together you will get nine e.g. 9x9=81. Eight plus one is nine.
Division is just the opposite of multiplication. It is reverse multiplication. If you know your times tables you can quickly pick up division. They are connected.
Hope this has helped. Let me know if you have any other tips for your students when teaching or learning your times tables…