Multiplication Ideas for different learning styles

We know so much more about how students learn these days. Long gone is when we taught a one-size-fits-all lesson to students.

It’s now common practice to go into a lesson thinking of the bigger picture with all students having the opportunity to access the learning, but this can feel like a daunting task for teachers (we know because we have been there too).

We love helping and supporting teachers here at Rainbow Sky Creations. This blog post aims to help you differentiate and cater for the different learners in the classroom when teaching multiplication and building on times table fluency.

Let’s break it down to the 4 main learning styles:

• The Visual Learner
• The Auditory Learner
• The Kinaesthetic Learner
• The Reading / Writing Learner

You may want to differentiate these activities by:

• Allowing students to choose the task they like best
• Encouraging them towards a particular activity or
• Providing a range of experiences to discover more about what suits them as learners.

PS. Before we start, if there are any resources you love in this post, just click on the image. We have linked everything we can to make it as easy as possible for you.

• • Puzzles are very visual. They can be used to illustrate the concept of multiplication and division being inverse operations

• • • Use manipulatives like blocks and counters to create multiplication facts

• • • • Have multiplication posters displayed for students to refer to during their learning

• • • • • Play multiplication battleships

• • • • • • Play games where students can clearly see groups, arrays or algorithms

• • • • • • • Play partner games like our Multiplication ‘Who is it?’ or Jenga (see the our Jenga multiplication game here)

• • • • • • • • Play skip counting games and show students how skip counting is linked to multiplication

• • • • • • • • • Ask students to write a rap or rewrite a favourite song to include times tables
                  • Listen to times table songs
                    • Use whisper phones

• • • • • • • • • • • • Play games. We have written more about some simple games perfect for multiplication fluency here

• • • • • • • • • • • • • Skip counting using hands-on objects such as pegs

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • Use simple resources such as UNO cards to create number sentences. Grab our flip it template for free to help with this idea.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Ask students to make their own resources to support their learning such as these counting wheels.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Write times tables in a fun and visual ways, such as rainbow colours

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Make language flowers to explore the different ways multiplication can be expressed

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Complete speed tests where students work on their fluency and towards beating their own personal best score

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Play games or make anchor charts and then record examples / answers on a mini whiteboard

This is Part 3 of our 3 times table fluency blog series. Read Part 1 here and Part 2 here.

Before you go, if you are teaching your students about multiplication and division, you NEED these two freebies in your life!

Click here to grab our FREE Flip it multiplication game (your visual and Kinaesthetic learners will love it).

Click here to get your hands on our FREE open-ended ‘Division Who am I’ resource (this is one your reading/writing learners will excel in!)

What to read next:

Fun Maths lessons that use UNO cards

A simple times table game that kids LOVE

Fun ways to develop division fluency

Strategies for taking over a class in the middle of the year