My sister came to me and said, “Taylor (my niece) is starting third grade. What do we need to work on over the summer?”
My response made her day (and summer).
“I’ve got this. Don’t worry about it.”
She then did the happy dance.
As upper elementary teachers, we know how important multiplication fact fluency is to our students. It can make the difference from being at grade level to struggling with every concept connected to multiplication facts!
We also know that multiplication fact practice can consume our time as we are constantly on the hunt for resources!
If this sounds familiar, you are in the right place! Check out how I help the students in my classroom each year and how I will help my niece this summer!
Step 1: Create an Interactive Progress Tracker!
An interactive progress tracker is a MUST when students are learning their multiplication facts. They need to know where they are and where they are going next with their multiplication fact practice!
The cover of our progress tracker lists all of the fact families. As students master each fact family, they color in the number. I always cringe when student progress is displayed for all to see! Anxiety! This cover allows for students to keep track individually!
The inside left of the file folder is a study sheet for students. Students list the facts they know on the left and facts they still need to learn on the right. This is a working document, and students update their lists as they make progress.
The inside right of the file folder is a multiplication grid. As students master each fact family, they highlight the multiples. This shows students how quickly they are chipping away at this HUGE task and shows them that they really don’t have much more to master once they hit their 7-9s!
The back of this Multiplication Fact Progress Tracker is a “Cheat Sheet.” You should see these things at the end of the year! They are trashed! We use these ALL YEAR LONG! They are a life-saver!
Step 2: Teach Multiplication Properties, Strategies and Tips!
I AM EMBARRASSED TO ADMIT IT, BUT... This is the step that I skipped the MOST during the beginning of my teaching career! I used to just skip straight to the memorization of facts. I did not understand that students have to UNDERSTAND multiplication! Rote memorization DOES NOT WORK!
Students need to have a toolbox FULL of multiplication strategies in order to improve their multiplication fact fluency! There will always be those facts that they will struggle with! We need to equip them with the tools that they need in order to get to those facts! They need to know there is always a strategy that they can use to get to the answer! We have found that this is the step where you will see a difference in their fact fluency!
We have recently posted a resource that gets students practicing the properties, strategies and tips that we use with our students! Want to see more? Click HERE! We like to use these Multiplication Properties, Strategies and Tips Brochures because it has everything you need in a simplified format that is engaging for students. We also created a parent brochure, so students can get help at home!
Step 3: Practice, Practice and Practice Some More!
Students practice their multiplication facts using Multiplication Brochures in our classrooms. We have 3 brochures for each fact family that covers multiplication strategies and basic multiplication fact practice! These brochures give them so much exposure in an engaging format!
Check out more information on our Multiplication Brochures by visiting another blog post HERE or by going over to our Teachers Pay Teachers store HERE.
Another form of practice that we use is Multiplication Fact Practice Strips. We have 3 versions of each fact family so students always get a different order. We use these strips in small groups, pairs or one-on-one.
Students also practice their facts using Multiplication Fact Practice Sheets that we put inside of sheet protectors. We often use these as a center.
Step 4: It’s Time to Show What You Know!
Every Friday, we allow students to test on their current fact family. We are very aware that there is a huge debate on timing students with their facts. This causes a ton of anxiety for some. Here’s how we deal with that in our classrooms.
We took the traditional 100 problems and cut it in half to 50 problems. We kept the traditional time of 5 minutes the same. Also, if the timer goes off and there is a student that is close, we allow them to finish. Each child is so different! We also take the timed tests away if we see that a particular student shows anxiety or if they just aren’t making progress. For these students, we go back to our Multiplication Fact Practice Strips and orally quiz students. If they show fluency in this way, they advance to the next fact family.
The best part about these multiplication fact drills is that we created a time-saving grading system!!! Grading has never been easier! We also utilize parent volunteers, student helpers or even the students themselves to grade!
Step 5: Track Progress and Keep Going!
As students pass each fact family’s drill, they update their file folder and either move on to the next fact or keep practicing until the next week!
Students love being in charge of their learning and parents love being able to see where they are and how they can help their child at home!
We love these interactive folders because we have a detailed look at their multiplication fact practice progress!
Are you looking to make Multiplication Fact Practice Easy for You and Engaging for Your Students?
31 Comments
I love this! I teach fourth and fifth grade and multiplication is always problematic! If they didn’t master it in third grade, it really hinders their math learning moving forward. I love everything you’ve shared in this blog post. The brochures look fantastic and I really appreciate the answer keys for the timed tests!
Interested in trying this strategy!!
I love the continuity and the visual progress tracker.
I love the continuity and the visual progress tracker.
I could definitely use the strategies and tips practice. Love it all!
I will be using this product to help my Upper EL students who struggle with their facts.
I’m excited to use the brochures with my scholars! would love the self grading and continued practice with the other components.
What a great way to provide meaningful practice.
Love the idea of a personal tracker to help students with their growth. Like you, a class display makes me cringe!
This looks amazing! I love the way you grade the fact fluency and record progress.
Love these ideas! Thank you so much for sharing these!
Great ideas! I’m for SURE making those folders up this week!
I love the self tracker. Students and me can easily see their progress without it being posted for all to see.
I love this resource! I would have liked for the strategies to be listed on the blog or the TpT post so I can get a better idea of exactly how it works!
I will teach only Math this year. OMG … I ABSOLUTELY love this Mega Bundle!!!! It has been on my TpT wishlist. It would be a blessing to win. I would use the entire Mega Bundle to help my students master their facts. This product will build a strong foundation and help them with the more advanced Math concepts in the long run. I would use the Interactive Progress Tracker and the Multiplication Strategy and Properties Brochures the MOST. I love that Parent Brochures are included for at home practice!
I would use the folder for tracking and “cheating” the most!
Fact practice has been so hard for some of my kiddos. I would love a way to get them excited about learning their facts. More importantly, I want to work on their retention of facts!
I love how the students have ownership of their fact fluency. I would incorporate the fact fluency tracking in the students math data folder.
I think these cheat sheets would be amazing. I have the brochures already but sadly have not used yet. Not sure what is the reason why, just forgot I had previously bought them!
Great ideas! My special education combined class of 1st & 2nd graders need lots of basic math facts practice. Thanks for the chance to win!
I would love to use the folders to track progress. What a great idea!
I am moving to 4th grade this coming school year after teaching 1st grade for 15 years, and this product will be so helpful in my transition! I see myself using this to really cement multiplication fact fluency with my fourth graders by doing daily practice and weekly pass-offs.
I plan to utilize this bundle as we start learning the strategies of multiplication. We start at the beginning of the year with multiplication according to our standards which is new for me. When I previously taught third, we didn’t do multiplication until after rounding, addition, and subtraction. I’m hopeful this bundle will give them a way to feel more confident as we progress through the unit. Thank you for making this awesome resource.
I have been wanting to get the multiplication brochures for a few weeks now to help my students master multiplication more fully! I think this resource would greatly help my students gain confidence in themselves through the repetition! I am very excited to try this with this year’s class!
This is my first year in 3rd grade, so I am excited to implement this!!
I bought your brochures and used them last year. I copied them on colored paper and displayed them in an acrylic brochure holder. Students would choose the one they needed to work on and loved doing the puzzles, practice, and various activities for each set. These are so amazing!!
fact practice is critical for so many reasons.
it can help with more than just multiplication and division…fractions, decimals, area, etc.
I love this! I have FINALLY started to focus more on the strategies than just the facts, and I can see the difference it is making in my students. These look like fantastic resources to reinforce those skills and to practice in fun and different ways.
I got the multiplication brochures at the end of the school year. I can tell you based on what we did to practice multiplication, multiples and factors, these brochures will be a marvelous addition to a classroom for independent practice that the students will enjoy. My next purchase will be the division bundle! Perhaps then 4th graders will see the connection between multiplication and division and not shut down when they see the 4th grade division problems.
I have used the multiplication brochures with my tutoring students. The activities are engaging and the repetition helps with memorization.
This is such a fun and organized way to make sure you’re giving students multiple ways of understanding and learning their multiplication facts! I love it!