Free Multiplication Facts Activities

Should Your Students Memorize the Multiplication Facts?

That is the question that many teachers and parents ask every year. I am a firm believer that students should know their multiplication facts but I am also adamant that repeated multiplication drills are not the way to do it. It is very helpful to know the multiplication facts to help with more complex concepts such as division, fractions, and ratios.

However, I think we need to be very cautious of the way we have students reach the ultimate goal of knowing their facts. We should be first taking the time to teach the “how and why” so we are not promoting memorizing without understanding.

Memorizing without understanding can very quickly lead to students disliking math and struggling with their mindset. Also it does not help when students are faced with a problem solving task. They would be use to one way (just knowing) of getting the answer rather than thinking in different ways and trying different strategies.

I am thankful that my curriculum does not insist on student memorizing facts, but rather it focuses on the UNDERSTANDING of a variety of methods to solve equations.

With that all said, I want to give my students a variety of (and more exposure to) activities that they use multiplication to complete. With exposure, and deeper thinking, it is inevitable that they will start to recall facts quicker. Great … lots of activities means more time searching for ideas or making complicated centers. I’m here to help you with that and make your prep a lot easier!

Planning Done for You!

Here are 3 FREE pages for your students that only require you to print and hand out. That doesn’t take much time does it?!!My students love these types of activities because they can use any strategy they like to solve the equations and they get to solve a puzzle.

Need to Differentiate?

Included are 3 levels of work to help with any differentiation you may need.You can start your entire class on the same page or if some student need more/less time you can give them the page that suites their needs best.

Stretch them out for less planning time.

Each of these has completely different equations so you can use all of them for 3 different math sessions or throw them in plastic sheet protectors and use them with your Math centers.

Remember to have fun with your students while they learn math. Math is one of the most disliked subjects in school and this is usually because of the thought that we must compete with our classmates or that we cannot memorize things quickly.

My goal is to help teachers, help their students to change their math mindsets.We can do this together one lesson and one activity at a time. Celebrate mistakes and take the pressure off your students to do things quickly.

Cheers,

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