Any good tips or games to help with getting times tables?

[Hellokittycat]

Ds, 6 is struggling a little with the concept of times tables. He's generally fairly bright and is good at reading but struggling a little in maths.
Any good games that we could play that may help??
Thanks!

Ds uses an app to test. We were given an order to learn them by school. Horrible rhymes for difficult sums.

8 x 8 I was sick on the floor, cos 8 x 8 is 64. Gross but effective.

He's learning them in order too. First 2 times tables, then 10, then 5, then 3 etc.
he's still on the 2's and 10's though, so is struggling a bit!

Ds did 0s, 1s, 10s, 11s then 2s, 5s and 9s ( using fingers). The later ones were easier because he could just double the answers. There are songs on you tube (Percy something??), ds didn't like them.

He likes using the pad and uses an app on there before he is allowed to watch or play.

Do you know what the app is called please?

We use android because ds likes electronic games etc and I didn't want it to feel like homework. It's how he earns screentime. Faves are:

Times Tables which allows you to test one or more against the clock.
Bubble Pop Multiplication which is a multiple choice game.
The calculator on my phone/ tablet.

Cbeebies has sheets etc that they use in school.

Check how the school does it and ask for support. Ds has a 27 Club. When I googled the result was musicians that died at that age. I think it's actually a random proficiency test of selected timetable in the order they do them.

I'd recommend the Number Jacks Times Tables app (although it only goes to 10x). It has 4 games.

The first one runs through the tables visually on a bus, with ten widows. You can choose to see the answer immediately, or it will appear with a second press of the chosen Number Jack effectively giving two levels.

I should add you can choose a number of settings, working on 1 table at a time or more, or 2 - 5 / 6 - 10 or the whole lot.

The second game gives another very visual way to learn the tables, where you can see how 2x12 is represented as 2 lots of 12 and then 12 lots of 2.

The third and fourth games are both about having random multiplication questions, and are good once a table is fairly well know. They are multiple choice, which is good whilst still learning. For a harder test I just cover up the multiple choice options until DD says the answer with a bit of card.

However I would add that for DD the process has been to learn to skip count, first forwards then backwards, then say the table properly as in 1x, 2x, whilst then playing the games. So she knows 10 and 2 and can answer any random question known. She can skip count forwards and backwards with 5 and knows most of the table, but is weak with 6x and 9x and 12x. She is just learning to skip count with 4s. So there is an overlap as she finishes learning one and starts learning the next, iyswim? And the app has definitely helped with the last two stages.

How is your DS counting forward and backwards in 10s and how good is his doubling and halving?

If he understands that he is adding and taking away repeatedly does he understand that times tables are 'simply' lots of (i.e. amounts of) the same number added up?

Hopefully pastsellbydate will be along shortly with lots of excellent advice!

Have you tried making the times tables for him? So for 1 x 2 you would write the fact on a piece of paper and put it next to 2 eggs. Then for 2 x 2 you'd have the fact written next to 2 lots of 2 clothes pegs. Then 3 lots of 2 bits of lego. Then 4 lots of 2 birthday cake candles. And so on and so on. You could photograph each one, both with and with out the written fact.

Then you can show him a picture and ask him for the matching fact. Build up to how many can he name in a minute. Or you could put the pictures and facts face down on the table and he has to turn them over and match them. You could have the pictures up on the wall in order so he sees them all the time. Then you could swap 2 over and see if he knows which 2 you've swapped.

Also draw arrays - patterns of dots - for each fact. This helps to show that 2 x 10 is the same as 10 x 2. All the above activities can be repeated using the written fact, array and photograph.

The aim is to give him a clear picture in his head for each fact. If he doesn't have this, the fact will remain something abstract he has to remember but he doesn't attach meaning to it. It's like being asked to learn a poem by heart in a foreign language - if you don't know what the sounds mean, it's incredibly difficult to do.

Does he understand that multiplication is repeated addition? If not, he's really going to struggle so you'll need to start by showing him that multiplication is just a quick way of adding the same number several times.

You say he's 6. If he's in year 1 I'm not surprised he's struggling a little. On the old primary curriculum, year 1 learn to skip count but times tables aren't introduced until year 2. There's a lot else for him to be practising - doubling and halving, number bonds to 10 and 20 as well as lots of counting forwards and backwards in 2, 5 & 10 before you worry too much about times tables. If he's in year 2 then all of the things I've suggested above, done regularly, should help him get 2, 5 & 10 cracked quite quickly.

Thank you! Some really helpful info there. I will read again and try out some of it! He is year 1 so still early days it seems for this. I'll try not to worry too much and make it as fun as I can :-)

We were a bit old school and got a CD for the car. V repetitive tunes. DS1 was about the same age but the bonus was DS2 picked them up without realising it.

Google Hit The Button, it's really great for times tables, I've used it loads of times with my class.

Useful timestables games:

Timestable SNAP. So ordinary deck of cards. Ace = 1/ 2 - 9 as numbered, Jack = 10, Queen = 11 and King = 12. Write down on a piece of paper the times table you want to practice (say x2 or doubling) - shuffle deck and place face down by paper. Flip over card - and first to answer wins the card. Winner is the one with most cards.

When you know all 12 times tables - play two deck version - so one player flips one deck and another the other. First to work out answer gets cards (so say one flips a queen and one flips a 5 = 11 x 5 - first to yell 55 gets both cards).

-------

Snakes and ladders. (Need 2 dice for x7 - x12). same idea as snap - have a times table for the game - say x6 - chose to roll one or two dice (depending on confidence or you can alternate on turns) - so say you roll 10 - 10 x 6 = 60 move forward 60 places. With times tables >7 - my advice is the play the board forward and at least once - from x10 - x12 we played 4 times (forward - back - forward and back again).

--------

Car journey counting game - so however many people in the car - decide what you will be counting by - say it's counting by 7 - so first person says 7, next person says 14, next person says 21, etc.... - see how high you can go - person who fails to get right answer is out.

------

free links to great games for multiplication on Woodland Junior school Mathszone: resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/timestable/

Highly recommend Timez Attack (free download version - just two platforms but we found it was fine) - ideal at that stage when they notionally know all times tables but are a little slow in places and maybe find one or two a bit tricky. Link here: www.bigbrainz.com/

Lots of free games also available from multiplication.com - www.multiplication.com/

-------

Finally - obviously go with what the school says - but there are times table families.

children tend to learn 2/ 5/ 10 - because counting by these is relatively easy - the pattern with numbers ending in 2/4/6/8/0 for x2; numbers ending 5 or 0 for x5 and numbers always ending in 0 for x10 are also fairly obvious.

The next time table to learn is usually x3 - a bit tricky but counting by 3s (tripling) is helpful later.

Once you know these - with x2 (or doubling) you can then understand what the answers are for

x4 (same as x2 but double answer)

x6 (same as x3 but double answer)

x8 (same as x 4 but double answer or same as x2 but double and double again)

x12 (same as x6 but double answer or same as x3 but double and double again).

at that point you also know x1 (although often not obviously taught) - ditto for x0 (anything x 0 = 0). So in total your child will know:

x0, x1, x2, x3, x4, x5, x6, x8, x10, x12.

x7/ x9 and x11 are all that's left.

Well x9 is number pattern heaven:

Any number x 9 is one less than the number you multiplied 9 by and the unit is whatever you need to add to that number to make 9:

1 x 9 = 1 less than 1 = 0 and 0 + what = 9 which is 9 = 09
2 x 9 = 1 less than 2 = 1 and 1 + what = 9 which is 8 = 18

and the pattern continues

3 x 9 = 27
4 x 9 = 36
5 x 9 = 45
.... right up to
10 x 9 = 90

11 x 9 = 99 (we'll discuss x11 next)
12 x 9 is just 9 more = 108

by the way if you add all the digits in any multiple of 9 they always = 9

99 - 9 + 9 = 18 and 1 + 8 = 9
108 - 1 + 0 + 8 = 9

alternatively for x 9 table up to 9 x 10 - turn your hands palm upwards with the thumbs on the outside. Numbering from your left thumb (as 1) to your right thumb as 10. Now use your hand calculator - fold the finger numbered the multiple of 9 you want to calculate - so let's say 4 x 9. 4 is your left hand ring finger. You shoudl have 3 digits up to the left of the folded finger (which represents the tens) and 6 digits up to the right of the folded finger - (which represents the units) - answer 36. simple & works.
------

x11 is just fun.

up to 11 x 9 - you simple write the multiple of 11 down two times.

1 x 11 = 11
2 x 11 = 22
....
8 x 11 = 88
9 x 11 = 99

10 x 11 you know from the x 10 table anyway - 10 x 11 = 110

but there actually is a trick for 2 digit numbers x 11.

Separate the first and second digit and the number in the middle is the two digits together.

So 11 x 11 = 1 - (1+1) - 1 = 121
12 x 11 = 1 - (1+2) - 2 = 132

if the two digits >10 you have to carry the ten tens to the hundreds column (first digit)

so 28 x 11 = 2 - (2 + 8) - 8 = 2 - (10) - 8 = (2 + 1) - 0 - 8 = 308
or 48 x 11 = 4 - (4 + 8) - 8 = 4 - (12) - 8 = (4 + 1) - 2 - 8 = 528

------

so that just leaves x7

but wait - we actually know 0 - 6 x 7 and 8 - 12 x 7 from the other times tables - so that means we just need to learn 7 x 7 = 49.

There's no trick but I find it helps to say 7 x 7 is a swine - which rhymes with 49.

HTH

Squeebles app is good for practising.