Two multiplication games to help children enjoy learning the facts.

The Grabbing Machine – Warning may induce laughter!
 

The Grabbing Machine is a simple yet effective game that encourages children to:

• say their times tables faster.
• be accurate with answers.
• have lots of fun with multiplication!

Suitability
This is a good game for children who:

• know the facts but only by working them out. I.e. children can count up in 2’s to get the answer for 8x2.
• know the answers but can’t or do not understand that they must learn to recall the answers quickly.
• know half or more of a multiplication table and need lots of repetition practice to learn the answers they often forget.

You will need
Let Me Learn’s Wizard Maths set of tables cards. If you don’t have a set you can get them free at: School Teaching Resouces

How to play – 1 player
Sort the cards in to 2 piles. Pile 1: answer cards, pile 2: question cards

Give the answer cards to the child and tell him/her that they have 10 seconds to lay the cards out on the table. Children can lay the cards in any order they want.

Now that the child has the answer cards in front of him you can put 1 question card down so that the child can see and reach it to put the answer card next to it. 

Raise your arm above the question card and shape you hand like a crane that is about to grab something. Whilst the child is looking for the answer card, slowly lower your arm down towards the question card whilst moving your hand in a grabbing movement. Voice sound effects like a red alert alarm sound that increases with speed as your hand gets nearer the question card are optional here depending on how motivated the child is. Some children will find this too exciting and won’t be able to find the answer card because they are laughing too much!

If the child finds the answer card then they get a point. If your grabber reaches the question card then you get a point. If you get the point you can take the card off the pile and keep it in another pile until the end of the game when the child can have a go at winning the points back. If your child answers incorrectly, don’t forget to take the answer card off their answer pile or they won’t have the answer card when it is needed.

The last question card in your pile will be easy for your child to answer so instead ask the child what card they think you have in your hand for an extra 2 points!

You can use counters as points or anything else that is suitable. Why not use a set of rubbery spiders - children will love them!

How to play – Many players
For a group of children, the method of play is similar.  You can share the cards out among the group and the child who gets rid of all their cards first is the winner. 
Alternatively you can place all the cards around the table so all the children can reach them.
Children can partner up and play against each other.

Variations - Differentiation
Give the children the question cards so they have to find the questions to the answers.
Use only the cards for the multiplication facts that they get stuck on.
If the children don’t know any of the answers start with just a few cards.

Jumping Tables
 

The Jumping Tables game is easy for any child, it can help children:

• visualise numbers (in their head).
• remember tables that they have previously found impossible to remember.
• have lots of fun with tables!

This multiplication game incorporates movement into the learning environment.

Suitability
This is a good game for children who:

• Know the multiplication facts one day but have forgotten them the next.
• Know most of the facts but always gets stuck on a few.

You will need
Let Me Learn’s Wizard Maths set of tables cards or similar multiplication flash cards. If you don’t have a set you can get them free at: School Teaching Resouces, and space to place cards on the floor.

How to play
Sort the cards in to 2 piles. Pile 1: answer cards, pile 2: question cards

• Select 3 or 4 question and answer cards that the child is having particularly difficulty with. If the child is only having trouble with 2 questions then select 1 or 2 more questions that they know.
• Lay the answer cards out on the floor like the drawing opposite.
• Ask the child to stand in the middle of the cards.
• Ensure that the cards are spaced so that the child can jump from each card in one jump.

• CAUTION: Ensure the child is wearing suitable footwear in order to avoid slipping.
• Call out one of the question cards that you have in your hand (you should only have 2 or 4 question cards that you chose earlier).
• Ask the child to jump to the answer and say/shout the answer out loud. Go through all the questions in your hand correcting the child if any mistakes are made. Change the order in which you call the questions out frequently otherwise your child may realise the pattern they are jumping in and may just be learning a pattern.

Now the fun starts!
When the child can jump to all the answers correctly in any order ask your child to choose a card to turn over so the number is hidden from view.  Repeat the process of jumping to cards and shouting out the answers. 

• Now ask your child to choose another card to turn over and repeat the process of jumping to cards and shouting out the answers. 
• Next ask your child to turn one of the cards that is face down back over so they can see the number again and choose another card to turn over and repeat the process of jumping to cards and shouting out the answers.
• Now ask yor child to choose another card to turn over and repeat the process of jumping to cards and shouting out the answers.  3 cards should be face down at this point.
• Finally turn the last card over so that all the cards are hidden and repeat the process of jumping to cards and shouting out the answers.

It gets even better!

• By now your child should know where all the cards are even though they are face down. Your child has a visual representation of the cards on the floor, but he/she needs to have the visual representation in their heads.
• Ask the questions again (changing the order of questions all the time) but this time ask the child to point and shout out the numbers instead of jumping. They should find this very easy. If they don’t find this easy, go back to jumping for a few questions and try again.

This is the best bit!

• Ask the questions again but this time no jumping and no pointing. Some children will be able to do this but others will not. It may even seem like they have forgotten everything they have learnt. Give them the following instruction:
• “Pretend to point to the numbers in your head.”
• You will find that everything comes back to them and they can remember all the answers. 
• Distract your child by talking about something else for about 1 minute, then ask the questions again. Ask you child to move outside the cards and ask the questions again. Distract the child again for about 2 minutes then ask the questions again. Gradually make the distraction time longer by for example putting the cards away, doing another activity or sitting down then ask the questions again. If they forget at any point ask them to think back to the cards that were on the floor

1 player or many players
This game can be played with 1 child or a group of children. For 3 to 4 children use 1 set of cards and place the cards on the floor in groups of 3 or 4. Call out the questions and see who jumps! Only 1 child should jump. The children can swap between sets to improve their knowledge and you can turn cards over as the children improve. You may need to turn cards back when swapping between sets. For more players you will need a duplicate set of cards or even a different set of table cards.

Variation - Jump to the questions
This game can be played in reverse by putting the questions on the floor and calling out the answers. If you are playing with 2 different sets of cards sometimes you will have 2 children jumping. This is a good game for highlighting multiplication facts. E.g. 12x2=24, 6x4=24, 3x8=24.

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