Multiplication Woes!

After an honest discussion today, the class admitted that they had a lot of room for improvement with memorizing their multiplication facts.  I know that every teacher stressed multiplication last year in 3rd grade, but it would seem that many of our classmates didn't really take the time to learn all of the facts.  We talked about why it is important to have the facts memorized.  Ask them about "automaticity."  The easier it is for a student to recall a product, the easier it will be for them to use that information.  If someone has to stop and count fingers to figure out what 7 x 8 equals, he/she will probably forget why they were trying to find out in the first place.  Very few things is life need to be committed to memory: address, phone number, a loved one's birthday, e-mail passwords, and now add to the list -- multiplication facts. 

We are dropping back to pick up this 3rd grade skill in order to have success on so many of the up coming 4th grade skills.  It is worth the time IF the students take it seriously this year and get them memorized.  We have gone over several activities that can be done at home to help.  Here are a couple of sites that may be of some use:

http://www.bigbrainz.com/

http://www.mathscore.com/math/free/worksheets/multiplicationMathFactsWorksheetGen.php 

Students are welcome to visit the comment section and leave their classmates messages about and suggestions for learning the multiplication facts.  Look here in coming days for posting of the TIMES LINE results!