Times Tales teaches kids the upper times tables without rote memorization. Students can simply follow along with the entertaining story. As they progress, they’ll be guided into associating the stories they’ve learned with real math. You can always find the Times Tales DVD at a discount on Educents.com!

Hundreds of kids have learned their times tables in an hour using a very fun & easy to understand animated video. The Times Tales DVD is a two-part video series that uses stories to teach multiplication to kids. The videos use cute, simple stories that provide students with a “memory peg,” allowing them to quickly recall otherwise abstract multiplication facts. As students progress through the video, they’ll learn multiplication without even knowing it! It’s that easy!

I don’t know that I have actually timed how long we have watched the videos so I can’t say whether he has learned his facts in an hour.  But I can say that the stories, images and memory pegs are great ways for learning.  This DVD focuses on the harder to learn facts and definitely makes it easier and fun!  The best part is that for my non-mathy kid who loves stories, these number stories helped him learn his math facts!

In the classroom, these short math stories would be a great way to start math, a fun and educational brain break or even the perfect way to fill a couple of extra minutes.  Wouldn’t it be great if your entire class could master their multiplication facts?  Well – out of all the resources I’ve used this is one is the most likely to do just that!  And its super fun too!

My son LOVES playing games during our school time.  Any time I can take a skill and turn it into a game I do because his engagement sky-rockets and so does his learning.  It’s a fun and easy way to help kids learn and still let kids be kids.   We love playing this Uno style math game and it is one of my son’s favorites to play at home!  This makes a perfect math center or fun game for early finishers!  You can grab it here for free!

I need to tell you upfront that I have not done this yet.  But I love the idea and the visual pattern that is seen doing this activity.  It is on our to do list in the next couple of weeks!  You can find out more about the Patterned Multiplication Circles by Lemon Lime Adventures.

5.  Math Fact Drills

Math Facts are one of those areas that I still believe in the old drill style.  As I said earlier I believe that kids must understand the concept of multiplication, but there’s no better way to learn the facts quickly than just to drill them over and over.  We love Xtra Math for practicing our math facts.

This free, online program is perfect for developing math fact fluency.  It is available not only for multiplication, but also for addition, subtraction and division.  It tracks each students progress and continues them at their own pace.  In about 5 minutes a day your students can work on developing math fact fluency in a fun way!  There are three short rounds of practice each focusing on a different aspect of the math fluency process.  My students really loves the Race the Teacher section and the page that shows how many facts they got correct in a row!  Did I mention that this amazing resource is free!

I hope that you’ve gotten some ideas for making multiplication fun and exciting.  Using a variety of methods will definitely keep your learners active and engaged in the process.  If you have a favorite activity to use in teaching multiplication share it in the comments below!