During the late fall, most third grade classes are working on learning basic multiplication facts. But sometimes, teachers wonder about the best strategies for teaching basic multiplication facts and making students learn them fluently. Multiplication facts are the backbone of many skills beyond third grade, but students struggle to get them down fluently. We have to teach students how to show multiplication facts with various strategies and properties to help them understand some of the rules of multiplication.
Sometimes kids really need help to memorize and practice their multiplication facts. Before I go any further, I want to be super clear: I believe that students need to be equipped with strategies for solving multiplication facts before they start memorizing them. They must have a conceptual understanding of multiplication to discover some of the strategies on their own. Memorizing facts isn’t for everyone; for some students, it’s not a reasonable expectation. Keep that in mind as you implement some of these strategies in your classroom!
Anchor Charts
All of the strategies we teach our students to help them solve their multiplication facts need to be posted somewhere that they can see them to have an easy reference point. They may only use one, or they may use a variety of strategies depending on the multiplication fact they are going to solve. I like to place them all on one anchor chart so they don’t have to continue searching for the right strategy for the fact that they wanted to use.
Teaching Basic Multiplication Facts Using Task Cards
I give students a small amount of time each day to practice their multiplication facts using task cards. When learning basic multiplication facts, we use array task cards, which are super popular among my students. In fourth grade, we also work on factors and multiples, so I have a set of those as well. I also have them use building equations task cards and two different problem-solving sets.
Teaching Basic Multiplication Facts with Arrays
This is a strategy that I use sparingly with my students. I don’t encourage them to physically draw out arrays, but I use the visuals of different arrays to help them see the connections and known facts “inside” a more difficult fact.
An example would be 4 x 4 being decomposed visually into 2 x 4 and 2 x 4. This helps students to solve for 4 x 4. When using this strategy, I like to invite students to share as many decompositions as they can find, and we record the multiplication facts that match. This strategy specifically helps students “decompose” a more difficult problem into smaller problems they know automatically. Using the arrays is a great way to help students visualize decompositions. This will help more advanced strategies, such as the distributive property, make sense to students.
Teaching Basic Multiplication Facts with Repeated Addition
This is a strategy that most students begin with. I like to encourage students to add quicker by combining and then adding mentally. This strategy is a foundational one that will help them to understand other strategies as they come into play.
If your students cannot do repeated addition, they may struggle with the more advanced multiplication strategies. So even though this may feel like a tedious and time-consuming strategy, it is a very important foundational strategy that will lead to more efficient strategies and conceptual understanding.
Teaching Basic Multiplication Facts with Skip Counting
Like repeated addition, skip counting is another foundational strategy that students learn in 3rd grade. I like to expand on this by having students use their skip counting skills to solve the unknown multiplication facts that they cannot skip count for (4s, 6s, 8s, for example).
An example would be students using their skip counting by 5s and 2s to solve 7s facts. This is absolutely not my favorite strategy and doesn’t work with all students, but it is a game-changer for some students.
Teaching Basic Multiplication Facts by Adding a Group
The add a group strategy is just like the name suggests. The students use the multiplication fact that is one group less (and an easier or fact they know) to help them figure out the unknown fact.
An example of this would be to solve 6 x 6. Students can use 5 x 6 to help them solve, then add another group of 6 to 30. Or they could solve 3 x 7 by adding another group of 7 to the product of 2 x 7.
As I have mentioned, I prefer to use multiplication strategies that work no matter the problem. However, this strategy (and the next one) have specific multiplication facts they will work with. In my experience, the adding a group strategy for teaching basic multiplication facts works best when solving 3s, 4s, and 6s (using 2s, 3s, and 5s).
Teaching Basic Multiplication Facts by Taking a Group Away
Similar to the previous strategy, this strategy has the students take a group away. In my experience, this strategy works best when solving 5s and 9s using 5s and 10s.
