Year 3 - Learning Times Tables

mintymoneysaver

hbloomers wrote: »

But 2x9 = 18, not 27.

!

And if you add the 1 and the 8 together they make 9! So 243, 405 and 1233 711111111111 would all be in the 9x table as their digits add up to 9 even if you don't know how many of them there are!!

bestpud

My dd(8) responds well to playing a game when learning anything new.

She starts out on the bottom stair and moves up one for a correct answer and down for a wrong answer. I put a small 'prize' at the top for when she gets there - a chocolate coin seem to work well.

It works with spellings too!

We also practice them in the car, or anywhere we have to wait.

cashless-cow

Another good website http://www.communication4all.co.uk/http/Tables.htm for printable resources.

dizziblonde

The other thing with the times table CDs... warning - be careful you don't end up singing them to yourself as you're wandering around Tesco or people will think you're completely nuts (ok so that part's probably right in my case!)

I've caught myself doing this on more than one occasion - usually school Christmas play songs that get me doing this - always really cheesy stuff as well so no way you can pretend it's a pop song or similar.

DVardysShadow

mrcow wrote: »

Does anyone know of any good online tools for learning times tables (2-12) or any tips on how to get them to really sink in.

I've tried everything I can think of (bar blutacking a copy of them up next to his bed - which is going to be my next step!)

Timez Attacks has been great and my son can do it no problem (has completed it as a game several times over now) but two days later he can't remember them.

It's the same with rote learning or me testing him, it's just not going in.

I would have to ask Does he understand what the times tables are for? Because if he doesn't, you might as well have him learn nursery rhymes in Turkish. There is nothing quite so mindnumbing as the sound of a junior class reciting their times tables.

Having made that point, I would suggest that it really is by seeing practical multiplication tasks day in day out. Number of paving slabs in a block. Tins in a box, money arithmetic etc that it will begin to click

mrcow

Thank you so much to everyone for their repsonses. All the links are bookmarked and I'm going to go through them all tonight. I'm really excited - I think it's exactly what we needed - a fresh approach.

Just to answer a couple of points. I don't think he has any problems with regards to dyslexia or the like. He's very number literate normally - I'd describe it more as a mental block. His school streams them for maths and he's always been at the top end of the year in terms of pretty much most things (October child, so one of the older ones).

He gets what tables are for and is quite fascinated by them. He was showing me tonight how you can use say 6x6 to work out what 600x600 makes - it's just that he can't then go on and tell me what 6 x 6 is without a lot of eye rolling and finally doing it on his fingers with a lot of encouragement from me.

Things like that don't usually bother me - I'm usually inclined to let things sink in when they will, but his school are putting quite a bit of emphasis on his times tables and I'm worried that he's struggling more than a fair bit with anything above x3 even though he's been through them time after time and has covered it in class.

Thanks again to everyone - I knew this was the right place to ask!

You're brilliant.

Indie_Kid

Remember for 9x table - the 10s go up 1 and the units go down 1. IE, 18, 27, 36, etc.

Becles

My son liked playing with counters. I used to give him 6 counters and say "can you make three groups of two?" and then it would sink in that 3x2=6. You can also use counters to explain division too.

If you haven't got counters, other stuff would do - lego bricks, pieces of dried pasta etc.

tandraig

mrcow - its hard to describe number dyslexia - I tried, but dont think i succeeded!
I understood the process of maths (or arithmetic as we called it) but trying to learn tables by rote or even by the mathematical processes above (which actually made my eyes hurt - all those numbers!) was painful for me. I did well too in first couple of years when we had lovely little pictures to add up or take away. it was gutting for me when tables were introduced. and i COULDNT remember them! i could work them out (eventually) but couldnt tell you what 6 times 9 was (even now) but, i get there by my own process which is mainly worked out in head - cos seeing the numbers written down confuses me!
its just a thought about number dyslexia - like word dyslexia it can vary, to a greater or lesser degree.
dont give the kid a hard time - my school years were hell mainly due to this.
patience and LISTENING to why the child FINDS it hard is needed here.

mrcow

tandraig wrote: »

its just a thought about number dyslexia - like word dyslexia it can vary, to a greater or lesser degree.
dont give the kid a hard time - my school years were hell mainly due to this.
patience and LISTENING to why the child FINDS it hard is needed here.

No problem. I do get what you're saying about it.I'm going to have a more in depth look into what's going on with his maths. I wasn't trying to be dismissive - I think it's hard to think about something like that when you've got a child who has always been so able at everything they put their hand to.

I've taken it on board and am going to do some reading.