As we progress through second trimester, we have moved from the addition/subtraction facts most children were working on through the Fall to multiplication facts with factors from 0-5. Just before the holiday break, children took a pre-assessment on 60 facts in 3 minutes with these facts. This past Friday, 1/10/14, students took their first of many weekly timed tests. Happily, most students will see a great deal of improvement over their pre-assessment scores.
How did we achieve such improvement? Practice, practice, practice…both at school and at home. Xtramath programs were switched to multiplication for practice here at school and at home. For those children who receive paper facts practice, that too switched to multiplication. We’ve also introduced 4 new Partner math games that practice multiplication facts: Fishy Multiplication, Groups Galore, Array Game, and Side by Side. Fishy Multiplication is an easily duplicated game that you can play at home. It works just like Go Fish, except instead of looking a pair of numbers, you look for 3 or 4 of the same number. Students then multiply the card number by 3 or 4.
Why is this game an important one? We stress the Zero Property of Multiplication (any number multiplied by zero equals zero) and the Multiplicative Identity rule (any number multiplied by one equals that number) at school. Multiplying by 2’s and 5’s is just like counting by 2’s and 5’s; therefore, you can solve a x2 or a x5 problem by skip counting-using what you already know to solve a newer problem. While students also know how to count by 3’s and 4’s, we use those skills less.
So, how can we continue this trend of improvement? Practice, practice, practice -strategically. On Friday, students were introduced to a new technology tool: multiplication.com. It is listed under the Math Links as multiplication practice. What I really love about this site (newly updated) is that you can choose a particular fact that your student needs to practice, click on it, pick a game, and the fact will continually pop up repeatedly throughout the game. When Mad Minute timed tests come home on Mondays, please review the test with your child and look for specific facts or sets of facts (e.g. the x3 facts) that need some more practice. As always, if you need specific help with your student and their multiplication facts, please let me know.