The ability to understand and recall times table facts is so important for your child’s learning in maths and for their confidence in mental arithmetic. Understanding times tables facts supports learning in other areas of maths such as fractions, percentages, division and algebra.
By the time your child completes Year 4 they are expected to know all of their times tables and to be able to rapidly recall them. However the importance of learning and understanding times tables does not stop here. The knowledge of times tables will be used right up to GCSE and beyond.
There are lots of ways to support your child in learning their times tables in a fun way:
- Drawing arrays or pictures to represent the calculation or using counters.
- Using tricks to learn some of the times tables. Double the 2 times table to get the 4 times table and double the 3 times table to get the 6 times table and so on. Use the finger trick to learn the 9 times table; for 2 x 9 hold down your second finger, it gives 1 finger and 8 fingers so 2 x 9 is 18.
- Buy or make your own flash cards. You can use these to learn with, play snap or matching pairs with or place them around the house to learn.
- Complete activity books.
- Play times table bingo.
- Listening to and singing times table songs.
There are a wealth of online learning opportunities to support times table understanding. Below are some examples:
- Times Tables
- Times Tables Rock Stars (currently with free access).
- Top marks
- Math is Fun