Times Tables Activities

Children in the elementary grades, generally from third grade on up, begin learning their times tables. Learning to master this math operation is different from addition, in which the students work on adding single-digit, double-digit and triple-digit numbers to get their answers. Engage your students with different times tables learning activities.

Games

After you introduce the concept and process of multiplication to your students, you can use games to make this fun for them. Some of these games include FlipUp, Multiplication Bingo, Around the World, Team Tag, Buzz, Seeing Doubles, Times Tables Football, What's Your Number, Dots, Break My Eggs, Slap Happy, War and Flashcards at the Door. Your students must have a basic knowledge of their multiplication times tables ---- it might be helpful to wait to introduce the fun learning until after each student has demonstrated a basic mastery.

Activities

Sometimes table activities take place online. One activity, called Tables Grab, shows multiplication facts such as 1 x 7. The game requires your students to choose tokens and, using different keys on the computer keyboard, move their token to the answer, in this case, 7.

Tablesmaster allows your students to look at different times tables and enter their answers into a small box on the computer screen. The program keeps track of the correct and incorrect answers, as well as how long it takes them to answer the questions in each game.

A times table starter activity for your class requires that the students write down their start time for the activity, then write their answers for 25 times table facts. When they are finished, they write down their finishing time, then subtract their start time from their finishing time.

Traditional Approach

The Resource Room website has charts with all the numbers filled in for the multiplication times tables. Below this, 11 more charts have different numbers filled in, allowing your students to learn how to multiply using the various charts. They are able to work on different charts that have different numbers left blank. Once they have mastered a times table -- such as zeros and ones -- they can take different quizzes. As they gain mastery of the times tables, they move to a higher stage and practice new facts, then take new quizzes.

While this method is less exciting, it allows you to give your students a solid grounding in what the times tables are and how they work. Your students can start at the most basic level and work their way up as they master the lower levels.

Times Tables Strategies

Your students may learn better when you ask them to use different methods. Effective methods include using music, employing rock 'n' roll or rap as you teach your students. Think back to the "Schoolhouse Rock" series ---- you remember some of the tunes and rhymes the producers and writers developed, teaching students about the Constitution and conjunctions. Some students will learn better using music, but others will have to sing the whole song to remember a single fact.

In the same way, rhymes help your students remember. Not all students can use this method. For the students who can use rhymes, this sample may help them remember 2 x 2: "Two shoes kicked the door, two times two equals four."

Memorizing multiplication facts using rote memory requires your students to make a sustained effort. It is one of the least effective learning methods, according to Multiplication.com.