Mrs. Thorp’s Third Grade Blog

Hands-on learning is always a great way to understand multiplication.  Children naturally like to touch things, that is the way they learn.  So why not use this idea to teach multiplication.

There are many kinds of manipulatives that you can buy, but you do not need to do this.  Look around your house,  there are many objects you can group together so that your child can see that multiplication is simply adding groups of objects that have equal amounts.

Just in five minutes in the kitchen I found some objects that I could put into groups.

These fish crackers show five groups of three equals fifteen or  5×3=15

These kidney beans show 4×6=24

These tangerines show 4×2-8

This muffin pan shows either 3×4=12  or  4×3=12.

Have your child find objects in the house or in the toy box that he can group. Give him a multiplication fact and have him use the objects to illustrate it.  Have fun with it.  Learning does not need to be boring!