Hey there! I know I always seems to start my posts this way but.... TIME NEEDS TO SLOW DOWN! Yes I'm shouting that phrase.
My little one is growing up so fast, and the school year is more than half over. What!?!?
I literally thought to myself just now, "Oh I blogged in December that's only a month ago, that's not so bad... Wait, it's February.... I basically missed a month in bloggy land.. Oops... So sorry friends..."
Here's what is new in my room!
I have this cool new routine happening in my class and I want to share it with you!
Who needs their students to get those multiplication facts mastered!? Oooo me!!!
I wanted to make the practice engaging & simple to implement so I created Multiplication Loops! These are super motivating, quick,and they get the practice done. Yes!
I put one of these on their desks in the morning and they complete it after bell work. Then they can either make the loops into a bracelet OR add it to our class math fact chain! It's quick, it's easy, AND they like it. That's what I call win-win!
In addition to the practice we do the weekly fact fluency test. The kids have 30 problems to complete and they're timed. I know it's old school, but I can't come up with any other way to get those facts to be mastered at a quick rate.
Some of the math stations I use to improve their fact fluency are Shake & Multiply, Xtramath.org, and the games below.
I used a clean egg carton, scrap paper, punched out circles, and beans to create this. The kids shake and multiply. The star is like a WILD. They can choose the number to multiply. For accountability purposes I had the partner check the solver's answer, and it if it's correct the solver takes a unifix cube. The kids are proud of how tall they can make their unifix cube tower by the end of the station.
I also use Roll & Multiply, which I bought on Amazon
Another class favorite is S-more Multiplication! In this one the students can play a variety of ways. They can match turn around facts for multiplication. The second way to play is to match the multiplication fact with it's division fact. The third way is to match all three and make the multiplication s'more. It's cute & the kids can use it in a variety of ways.
It's a popular choice during math station time!
What are some activities used in your classroom to practice multiplication facts?
