Multiplication Madness in Third Grade (and a fun game to try at home!)

In math, third graders have been building upon their understanding of multiplication and have been exploring multiplication through a variety of games and activities.  We started by reviewing what students already knew about multiplication, and it turns out that they knew a lot!  Students recalled that multiplication is the same as repeated addition; that it totals the number of objects in a certain number of equal groups; that multiplication and division are opposite operations, and that the multiplication sign means “groups of,”

 We have been exploring a number of ways to solve multiplication problems, including drawing equal groups, using skip-counting on a number line and a hundreds chart, skip counting mentally as well as using arrays and the area model.

Third graders have been eager to practice and apply what they are learning about multiplication to math games.  They have been playing a variety of practice games, some of which focus on multiplying by a specific number and help them practice strategies like skip counting, and others that focus more on problem solving related to multiplication.  This week they played a multiplication card game called 'Spiral Multiplication' as well as 'Multiplication Battleship' and 'Multiplication Dominos.'

If you’d like to try a fun multiplication game at home, get out a deck of cards, a die and something to use for game pieces.

Spiral Multiplication Directions 

(For two or more players)

1.     Use a deck of cards to make a spiral game board starting from the center (take out all of the face cards, but leave in the Aces, those will count for ones).

  

2.     Place your game pieces at the start (in the middle, ON the first card).

3.     Player 1 rolls the die.  Player 1 multiplies the number on the die by the number his or her game piece is on.  If they are correct, they move the number of spaces the die shows.  If they are incorrect, they do not move on that turn.

4.     Take turns and repeat until someone reaches the end of the spiral.

If you enjoy this game, you can also ask your third grader to teach you how to play one of the other multiplication games we have recently learned.