As math teachers, we spend a lot of time coming up with new ways to test our students on multiplication. After all, it’s not exactly an exciting topic for kids! When you think about math as a subject, there are only so many ways you can test your students on it. It might not be the most creative field, but by using different methods and activities, you can make it more interesting. In this blog post, we will explore some of the most effective ways to test multiplication mastery in your classroom. You might have heard of some of these methods before, or even used one or two of them yourself in another class. But if you are looking for something new and exciting to add to your routine check-up tests that won’t bore your students to death – read on!

If you want to mix things up a bit, try out a class race when testing multiplication. You can either assign two separate races or a joint race with two teams. The students will be given a multiplication problem to solve and will have to do so as fast as they can. The first team or person to get the correct answer gets a point. You can test different groups or students each time, but make sure to keep it fair by not letting students look up the answers beforehand. This is a great activity to test your students’ speed and accuracy when solving multiplication problems. It can also be used as a great motivator, especially if you are planning to test your kids’ multiplication facts. You can challenge them to beat a certain time or solve a certain amount of problems in a short time – the faster they get it done, the more points they will get for their team!

 

You can also have a year-long race that will test students’ mastery of multiplication tables by having a sailboat or a racecar race that students get to move along based on when they complete certain multiplication activities that show they have mastered that set of times tables. I have a template for a sailboat race in my ultimate multiplication toolkit. If you would like a free copy of that you can become a subscriber at the link below and I will send you your free copy.

 

There are a variety of strategies that can be used to help students master multiplication facts. While some of them will be more effective than others in different situations, all of them have their merits and can be useful to certain kids. It’s always a good idea to incorporate as many strategies into your class as possible, as long as they are appropriate for your student’s skill level. Here are a few that you could try out in your class. Skip counting is the first thing that I do to introduce students to multiplication. It is low-pressure but students start to get familiar with the patterns that are a part of multiplication. From there you should teach them more about those patterns and how they correspond to different numbers and help them see how multiplication repeats. From there you can work with arrays and groupings. These will make math more concrete for these students. It will have them physically grouping things or drawing them in groups will help them see the math more clearly and is perfect for kids that need a more hands-on method. Lastly, you should teach kids that multiplication is really just repeated addition. If they really understand addition this will make multiplication easier for them.

 

If you want to incorporate these strategies into your classroom but are not quite sure how you are in luck because I have a multiplication strategies lesson plan made for you. This will have your kids learning all these multiplication strategies for all the time’s tables 1-12. If you would like to grab a copy of those lesson plans click here.

 

If you are a parent and don’t have time to do these lessons with your kids yourself. Then enroll them in my multiplication strategies class. I will go over all these strategies with them and we will do fun games to practice their multiplication tables. You can sign up for the next section here.

 

This is a method that will really test your students’ multiplication knowledge, quick thinking, and memory. You can assign each student a different multiplication fact, and then have them write it down on a piece of paper. Once they have all their facts written down, have them fold up their papers and put them in a hat. Divide your class into teams and assign each team a multiplication fact. Have the team members take turns drawing out a piece of paper and reading out the multiplication fact on the paper. If they know the answer, they can keep the paper, but if they don’t then they must put it back in the hat. The team who has all their papers at the end is the winner. This method is really effective and tests your students on all of their multiplication facts.