Helping learning times tables??

[andirobobo]

Ok - back from Parents Evening and DD (8) in Yr 3 is struggling with maths as she does not know her tables very well.

Talking to her - she thinks she knows them as she can recite the pattern -eg- 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14 ,etc but if you ask "What is 6 x 2" she cannot give the answer very easily.

So a crash course in tables is needed - anyone have any sure fire ways to learn it as I can see a battle ahead!

Thanks!

Thank you for this fantastic thread.

Over40 a similar idea suggested in "Maths for Mum and Dads" by Rob Eastaway suggests taking a page orientated in landscape and dividing it in half and then halving the right hand side again, a bit like this [ 1-] the "1" is the line down the middle and the "-" is the line further dividing the other side of the page - you put the product on the left hand side and put one multiplier above and one below the line on the right hand side of the page.
It's a brilliant tool for helping children understand the relationships between multiplication & division - but it also works well to explain the relationships between subtraction and addition.

over 40 - that's exactly what my link show/post was about!

love the triangle idea

at school we used triangles for physics formulae (speed = distance / time etc) - can't believe I never thought of doing it for times tables!!!

Carol Vorderman Maths Factor - times tables package?

Haven't tried myself but children appear to LOVE the site and I imagine programme works very well.

Am trying the arithmetic package - and from what I see so far it's brilliant! Very impressed, not least because my children love it!

Not free though but month's trial period is fairly cheap. Good luck.

"The way they teach maths these days could have been designed to put them off for life!2

Totally agree!

DD is in year 2 and she is expected to understand "1/4 of 1000" as some abstract concept before she has learned multiplication - let alone division! -- by 4.

No one has mentioned to her that when you look at the number above and the number below the line in the fraction the top number means multiply and the bottom number means divide. WE have been struggling with say grids that have 12 squares and she has to shade one quarter of them. Then one day I said look the number on top in any fraction means multiply the one on the bottom means divide. And, Bingo! She totally understands it now. Why on earth are they teachin 1/4 and 1/2 and 3/4 before division!

So we have crammed in the times table through 6 and we talk about corresponding division because whilst these things are not in the Y2 curriculum, they ARE on the KS1 SAT test she will be taking in May.

love the triangle idea

i withdraw my cereal packets plan a bit

lol probonbon - I like the cereal packet idea

the more different ways you can practise the tables the better, especially while they're young enough to enjoy it as a game rather than a chore.

love the dancing too - good for multisensory/kinaesthetic learners who aren't always catered for by traditional methods!

When parents at school ask me how to teach their children tables I'm afraid I offer a few methods and then point out that it is purely a case of finding which method best suits each particular child!

I'm sure they think it's a cop-out, but all children learn in different ways.

so is the Percy CD supposed to be the best for learning times tables?

Try www.multiplicationtables4u.com which takes a completely different approach.

www.singyourtables.com sells a great CD on the times tables. I bought one for my class from the Christmas fair, the children in my class love it!
It has rap, pop and rock!! The children find it hard not to bop and dance about!!

Inside the CD is a booklet with all the words and a page on tips for multiplying, in line with how we teach it today in school (tips and hints!)