5 activities to help your child learn their multiplication tables

A common strategy for tackling any ambitious project or challenge is to break it down into smaller pieces. This is also true for learning multiplication tables. You can start small by asking your child to focus on learning one table at a time. For example, you could concentrate on learning the 4’s table for a week. There is no need to wait until homework time to practise, either! On the contrary, if you look for opportunities to practise multiplication tables in everyday life, your child will start to see how math is relevant outside the classroom. Here are some ways you can practise times tables with your child in your day-to-day life:

• Shopping and calculating the price of purchases or playing grocery store
• Cooking together and multiplying the ingredient quantities to double a recipe
• Counting the steps between landings to calculate the total number of stairs in a building
• Playing games and calculating the number of tokens or cards to give the players
• Etc.

Once your child has mastered a few tables, they can try this word search–inspired activity. The goal is to circle three boxes at a time (horizontally or vertically) to form correct multiplication equations. There is also a blank grid where you can write multiplication problems for which your child struggles.

The ever-popular game of bingo can be a great way to make learning fun. With a few tweaks, it can also be used to practise multiplication tables! Instead of calling a number, the caller reads out a multiplication problem. The player then looks for the answer on their bingo board.

To begin, have your child write the operations they want to practise on pieces of paper. Next, pick an operation and read it aloud. If your child finds the answer on their card, they can mark it with a token (button, pebble, etc.) or a stamp. When your child has marked five numbers in a row (vertically, horizontally, or diagonally) or filled their whole card, they win and get to shout BINGO!

Physical activity has benefits for both the body and the mind. In addition, children usually love to move. Here are some ideas for channelling your child’s excess energy while practising multiplication.

• Play times table hopscotch: on a sunny day, head outside with your child and draw a large hopscotch board on the sidewalk in chalk (or on tile with a dry erase marker). In each box, write a multiplication problem that your child has to solve before they jump to the next one.
• Multiplication scavenger hunt: a twist on a classic game where the clues are multiplication problems.
• Throw a ball while reciting the multiplication tables, one operation at a time.
• Use everyday objects (building blocks, peas, buttons, etc.) to make groups to practise multiplication. This will help make abstract concepts feel more concrete.
• Play Multiplication War: remove the Jokers and face cards from a deck of cards, shuffle, and divide them equally between two players. Then, the players each turn one card face up at the same time. The first player to say the product of the two numbers wins both cards. Whoever collects the most cards wins the game!
• Do cardio workouts like jumping jacks, burpees, crunches, knee raises, jumping rope, etc. while reciting the times tables out loud!

Another tip for remembering multiplication tables is to review them out of order and, most importantly, practise, practise, practise! This strategy helps develop automaticity (the ability to automatically give the right answer without thinking about it), which is a necessary part of the memorization process. To review mixed times tables, cut out all the multiplication problems from this table (or one number’s table at a time), being sure to leave off the answers. Next, crumple each piece of paper into a ball and put them all in a bowl.

Have your child pick one ball out of the bowl at a time and solve the equation. If they get the answer right, they get to keep the piece of paper. If they get it wrong, talk it through with them, give them some tips, and put it back in the bowl so they can try again later. An empty bowl means that your child has reviewed all of their times tables correctly!

Your child can also practise with index cards following the same principle: write the multiplication problem on the front and the answer on the back. Stack up all the cards they get right. Keep going until your child has run out of cards.

You can also create a version of a classic matching game where your child has to match multiplication problems with their answers.

With the right tools, multiplication can be a breeze! Introducing your child to Alloprof’s games is a great way to make learning fun. You can suggest that your child do the following: 

• Play Fin Lapin 3 to practise operations, including multiplication problems and missing terms. Players can change the speed, mode, and types of operations and table(s) to review (up to the 12 times table).
• Play Météormath to practise operations. Players can choose to practise all four operations or one at a time, like multiplication, as well as select the difficulty level and table(s) to review (up to the 12 times table).