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Secondary education

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Times Tables apps/games for secondary

3 replies

Thimbleberries · 20/01/2021 09:10

Does anyone have any recommendations of apps to practice times tables for secondary age pupils (Year 8 and 9). They are beyond the age of enjoying things like Squeebles or Rock Stars etc. Hit the Button is OK but it is multiple choice, which is problematic in terms of actually learning the answers rather than merely recognising them. There are lots of others, but all meant (understandably) for younger primary age.

These are children who understand the concept of multiplication, but don't know their tables fast and automatically. They can calculate them as needed (sometimes quite fast) but that still takes time, is prone to errors, and means that they don't automatically recognise multiples and factors etc that would make some questions much easier. They also still frequently make calculation errors, when they assume that they do know a multiplication fact by heart, but don't.

They are busy with learning the rest of the maths curriculum, as well as all their other subjects, and tend not to want to put the time in to learn tables in the way that primary children are able to - and of course there isn't the focus of regular tests, contests, etc that primary children have. They know they should learn them, they make some half-hearted attempts to get back to it, but never quite do. And they (think they) are getting on OK in their work by counting them out, so they don't really have a good incentive to find the time to learn them properly - it is hard to convince them that they would find many topics easier if they knew them properly and saw the connections between numbers.

But if there were more games or fun ways to practice that didn't feel really childish, or really boring, then they might be persuaded to put some effort into it - individual games/apps in particular. Any suggestions?

(These are not top-grade students who have good understanding of maths and don't know their tables - many of those can calculate very quickly as needed, and fully understand the difficult topics, know what they need to figure out and when, know how to check their answers etc, and are fine without knowing the tables by rote. I know that it's not essential for all students. But these are sort of low-middle students, who are struggling somewhat with basics like fractions, ratios, algebra, and various other topics, and spotting the connections between numbers, the factors and multiples, etc would make understanding much easier, and who are somewhat interested in improving their tables).

OP posts:
HasaDigaEebowai · 20/01/2021 09:13

Times attack. It's an against the clock times table computer game. Its obviously mainly used for primary kids since theyre supposed to have their times tables sorted by secondary but I think secondary kids would be fine playing it too.

Im not sure how much it is now since we bought it years ago

Thimbleberries · 20/01/2021 09:27

Thanks, I will check that one out.

Yes, if only they had sorted them in primary school!!

OP posts:
ittakes2 · 20/01/2021 10:11

The best times tables resource I ever found was this by Graham Woodward. It uses learning by movement and helps them to see times tables as a puzzle / understand the relationsips between the answers etc. Its hard to explain but there is a video on the website. I got my children to spend 10mins on this each day (I also bought the divided by pack) and within 12 weeks my twins knew all their times tables up to 12 x 12 off by heart. This was in year 3. Building on this knowledge within 6 months my son knew all his times tables up to 20 x 20 off by heart and my daughter up to 18 x 18. In year 3 they were at the top of the school. Not because they were maths genuises but because they had a good grounding in understanding how to quickly work out the answers.
www.ko-box.com/knowyourtimestables.html

We also used this game. Its like snakes and ladders but it can be made harder for adults.

www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00FGPUHS4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?psc=1&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&ie=UTF8

And I also bought this photocopable book and got my twins to do a page each day of practise. Mine were still in grade 3 when they did this and it only took them a few minutes so won't take them too long each day.

www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1505361729/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?psc=1&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&ie=UTF8

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