Multiplication

After the Chapter 3 Test next Tuesday, we will be beginning Chapter 4. Chapter 4 covers Multiplication Facts and Strategies. This is where the students will really begin to learn and understand how to multiply. Multiplication is largely about memorization. The students must be able to memorize facts and their products. We don’t want students spending time on their state exam drawing arrays and equal groups. Therefore, they need to know their multiplication facts and products by heart and be able to solve the equations quickly and easily. As a team, we do have many strategies that we can use to help them learn and understand their facts! However, we do need your help as well!

I suggest that each student obtain a pack of multiplication flash cards. These can be purchased at the Dollar Tree, Target, or any other educational store. Students should begin practicing with their flash cards and begin learning their facts. The students should practice these flash cards each night, as to help them better become acquainted with the different facts and their products. They can go over these flash cards independently, with an adult, and/or with a sibling. The important thing is that they are practicing!! The more they practice, the better they will become. The students will also have flash cards glued into their Interactive Math Notebook, that they can use to reference or study while they are in school.

After the students begin learning their basic facts, they will begin taking basic fact timed quizzes. They will begin being assessed on the facts they know. We will begin assessing them on the 2’s, 4’s, 5’s, 10’s, 3’s, and 6’s, as these are the first numbers they will learn to multiply. All students will begin with 2’s. Once a student passes the 2’s, they will move to a timed quiz that tests them on the 4 times table. Once they pass the 4 times table, they will move on to the 5 times table and so on and so forth. If a student takes a quiz and does not pass, they will continue to take that same quiz daily until they pass. For example, if a student takes the 2 times table timed quiz on Monday and does not pass, they will take that same quiz again on Tuesday. If they do not pass again, they will take it again on Wednesday. Students will continue take the same quiz until they pass. Each student must master each times table, before they are able to move on. Timed quizzes will help them memorize their basic facts. Taking these timed quizzes will also help them prepare for fourth grade, as fourth grade students take timed quizzes daily for the first few weeks of school.

In school, we will also be doing a great deal of multiplication centers. These centers provide students the opportunity to kinesthetically work with the basic facts and multiplication strategies. We will be doing a center where the students have to create arrays and multiplication equations using Fruit Loops cereal. We have done this center in the past and the students really seem to enjoy it! If you would be willing to donate 2 boxes of Fruit Loops cereal (or the off brand-it does not matter), please let me know. Send in your receipt and you will receive volunteer hours for the money spent. J

At home, you can put your child on any website that focuses on multiplication. Now, there are even iPhone and iPad apps that allow children to practice multiplication. IXL is a good website for the students to use to practice multiplication. They all have their login information for this site. Their logins and password were sent home in the Wednesday Folder in September. The students should definitely use this website to practice their multiplication

facts.