How do you teach multiplication?

[Twiglett]

DS has been whizzing away at his numeracy and his addition and subtraction are really good IMO

I do a little worksheet of 10 sums with him most days (he's collecting stickers for a trip to toys r us) ... he uses his fingers to count, and has just started holding a figure in his head and using his fingers to add the next number. He can do working outs in columns.

how do you teach multiplication then .. is it like 2 x 3 is the same as adding up 2 + 2 + 2 or do you make them learn by rote?

We show DD 2x3 as 2 lots of 3.
We use items to get the hang of it at first and then DD can draw things to help her work out the answer.

How old is he, Twig? DS is 6yo, in Yr1, and also good at addition/subtraction. We have talked to him about multiplcation, but he's not getting it (yet).

I think in school they start by getting them to add 2+2+2, they show the answer and they show this problem visually to get them to understand the idea of multiplication. They might just do simple 2x and 3x multiplcations worksheets at first.

he's 5 .. reception class .. but he's really quite keen

so do you think lego bricks would be a good visual aid?

and stick with 2s and 3s

yes, lego bricks is good. If he is keen to do it then there is no harm in encouraging him.

I am in the process of teaching DS, who is in nursery, number bonds to 10.

I'm teaching dd with milky bar buttons :)
She's 3.5 and is geting damn good. She is especially good at subtraction :)

I would do it in terms of 3x2 is 3 lots of 2....

In school we teach them practically so choccie buttons or lego or anything visual is good.

We use language like 'lots of' and combine repeated addition with an array.

So for example '2x3' would be '2 lots of 3'i.e.,
3 + 3 = 6

(imagine the astericks are choccie buttons!)

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• • • = 2 lots of 3 which make 6 (count them up)

so

6x5 is 6 lots of 5 i.e.,

5 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 = 30

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• • • • • = 6 lots of 5 which make 30.

You also need to do lots of counting in 2, 3, 4, 5, 10 etc (I'd stick to 2, 5, and 10) which helps a lot.

Learning parrot fashion isn't that helpful as they can memorise it but not understand the operation.

Hope this makes some sort of sense!! :)

Bugger the astericks haven't all come out for some reason.

There should be 2 rows of 3 astericks in each row

and

6 rows of 5 astericks in each row

jmum6 - that is exactly what i tried to do and my asterisks didnt work lol

I was wondering exactly this the other day.

some very useful explanations here.

thank you thank you

I think I've got it

and thanks for teminology too .. I remember 'lots of'

if you have powerpoint, have a look \link{http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/maths/mathsC2.htm\here- second one down - repeated addition as mulitiplication}

When I was teaching I would use the term 'sets of' (in exactly the same way as 'lots of'). We would spend a lot of time making sets of things eg a set of red bricks, a set of blue buttons, a set of animals etc. This is done first with real objects, then the kids can place multisticks (little stacking blocks) on to their paper and draw round them. Finally they move on to abstract numbers. Then when you start multiplication you start looking at for example, two sets of 3 bricks makes 6 bricks altogether. Always start with the twos.

Maybe the asteriks are on strike!

I'd stick to 2, 5 and 10, and leave the 3's until later on.

Your lo's are very able then because we do a bit in Y1 but the bulk of it's done in Y2.

What little stars you have!

Number bonds are a good thing for them to do, as is place value (htu)

I would second the suggestion about introducing your ds to the number bonds to 10 as he's keen on numbers. Basically, it means helping him to investigate and understand all the different ways you can make 10 eg. 0+10, 1+9, 8+2 etc. It gets covered a lot at school (in Y1 I think), but you can make it really fun by using 10 pieces of popcorn or dried pasta or beads on a string and sliding them backwards and forwards to show the different sums.