Four times multiplication math center for students working on their 4X is available in our free eMember area. You may sign up here for free, and login at this link.
Working on multiplication facts takes some time and persistence. It is very important for future mathematics understanding, even though there are calculators. Students must understand the calculator is showing correct information, or nearly correct results. I recently posted a free download to help children understand there are really few (12, with four doubles) difficult multiplication facts, which have rhymes to help them memorize the facts. Understanding turn-around facts, skip counting, and repeated addition are all helpful in building fact fluency. In multiplication operation, the change in the order of the numbers being multiplied does not change the product.
The four times may be introduced with the chant, “2 – 4 – 6 – 8, (and zero) Who do we appreciate” as a reminder all the products in 4 X will end in 2, 4, 6, or 8. They are all even. Of course, the products are not in order of the chant, just have those numbers in the ones place.
The cut and paste work page uses 2, 4, 6, and 8 as answers. These are not the products, but the ones place part of the product.
The four times houses could be used to demonstrate the chant does not go in order. So, chanting, but pointing to the ones place will show simply the products are all even. Are the children able to point while chanting? Houses with and without answers are provided.
The interactive notebook page has instructions in the PDF, and children only apply glue (dots) to the side with their name, not the entire page. They cut the flaps before gluing so they may be lifted to show the products. There are hints on the flaps to help anchor the four times. Children may color these just to spend more time on the page and help their understanding.
What’s missing? After children write in missing numbers, they might play this as a game. Using white plastic bottle caps, they can cover a few numbers for partners to guess what is missing.
A page is included with the four times row and column highlighted. They are able to see the shrinking number of facts to learn that are left.
Thank you for reading. As always, I hope these PDF pages are helpful to some readers. Carolyn
