A Game to Practice Your Times Tables

[Tundra]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v434/Livinginthepast/NiH/Pack_of_playing_cards.jpg

Some NiHers and readers are parents or teachers. I thought I'd share one of my favourite maths lessons that was a great hit for my class of year 3/4 students, who had many 'aha!' moments during this game. Of course you can play this at home too!




Lesson Title: Maths Celebrity Head Cards

Curriculum Area: Maths Year Level 3 and 4


Materials: A deck of cards, groups of three students


Outcomes

To practice times tables and division, and to understand the connection between them

Teaching And Learning


Introduction

Put children in a group of three.
Give children a deck of cards and explain the rules of the game:
Two students pick out two cards at random, eg, 5 and 10, and put them on their heads ala celebrity heads, without looking at the card. The third student in the group multiplies these two numbers together, eg 50. The other two students can see the cards on each other’s head- their aim is to now work out which number is on their head based on the answer that the third player said- ie, division, and knowledge of times tables. This helps them connect ideas of division and multiplication in a fun way.




Development

Students play the game, switching at who is multiplying and who has it on their heads. Variations can be suggested, such as playing with addition and subtraction (or subtraction and addition), or using two ‘digits’, or including the kings, etc. If needed, a times table chart can be supplied.


Conclusion
Play the game whenever possible for a quick bit of fun revision. Pack up the cards.

[MichaelB]

Nice, very creative.

I do wonder, however, if you could devise something more inclusive of children with developmental dyscalculia? I would have struggled with this game even in grade 6 or year 7, because it still relies on memory and recall rather than on lateral thinking. It's a step up from mindless chanting, certainly, but it hasn't escaped the whole educational theory of "say it enough times and they'll remember it". For children with developmental dyscalculia (like myself when I was in school), this simply isn't possible, so as a teacher you'd need to be drawing different comparisons.

What I mean is, you still rely on children being able to remember and recall the fact that, say, 50 is 5 X 10, and be able to work backwards from the answer. In my particular case of dyscalculia, I was not able to even remotely comprehend this, as it still relied on my memorising a list of numbers and being able to recall their sequence and position within the times-table matrix.

But then, you're not really learning to cater to 'special needs' students, are you? So I guess my comment is irrelevant. Anyway, it seems like a fun game for between classes or at the last 5 minutes of the day when waiting for the bell to ring.

[Tundra]

The purpose of this game isn't so much to learn your times tables- by this point, they pretty much already know them, this is for practice and to see the connection ( a little) between division and multiplication. It is only one of a whole vast array of games that should be played to teach it and practice it. :) I wouldn't condone using this and only this. No I don't specifically cater to special needs students however I still have to accommodate them by playing a variety of games. This one may not.

[DrewBlay]

thank you


__________________________________

times tables online teaching (http://www.free-training-tutorial.com/times-tables-games.html)
for more subjects: math games (http://www.free-training-tutorial.com/math-games.html)

[MelancholyBliss]

Is it really a "special needs" issue to teach or practice based on actual calculations rather than memorization?

I wasn't taught memorization so I have a problem with instantly regurgitating certain times tables, something not really asked for outside of school anyway. I was taught to calculate in my head which works for any mathematical situation IRL.

I'm not saying the game doesn't have a place in education, though. I'm just saying I don't think it's a matter of special needs. It's just a different means of teaching which comes up with different results depending on the population, especially considering the distaste some have shown for alleged American practices of standard memorization as opposed to teaching children to think (I say alleged because there is obviously not one way Americans teach).

[Tundra]

Yeah, it wasn't aimed at 'special needs' kids, it was just a game.

I'd actually teach times tables totally differently to this (especially now after so many more months experience!), this is just a game to practice some of the ideas around it/the memorisation.

[MelancholyBliss]

Sorry. Flip that around. Hahahaha. I meant another means of teaching - calculation rather than memorization - wouldn't be a special needs issue, to me.

But like you said, this is one of many activities you can do, that it's not a method of teaching. Definitely a worthwhile game. Mentoring kids of almost all ages pre-adolescence, games to reinforce skills were usually a big hit. The thing I like about this one is that it's active rather than some sitting at a desk activity. For example, I hated it when language teachers decided to play a game by letting us do a word search or crossword puzzle. At that age, that was more boring than traditional school-work.