Hands-On Activities for Multiplication

Multiplication is an essential part of mathematics and is important to know for everyday life. This mathematical operation is simply a quicker way to add numbers up; the quicker you can get that across to the children, the quicker they'll be able to grasp the concept as a whole. There are activities with a hands-on approach that you can use in your classroom to help the learning process.

Seeing Doubles

Dominoes can be a good hands-on resource for learning the first six multiples of two. The domino doubles go from blank to six; you can pass them around the class or have the children come up to take a look at them. Each one of these shows the multiple of two, as there are two of the same number. The number of dots on the domino represents the product of two times that number. You can even explain that the double blank is the same as two times zero, which equals zero.

Cups and Marbles

A great introduction for multiplication would be showing a prime example of how the operation works. You'll need a whole bunch of marbles and up to 10 small cups for this demonstration. Ask the children to give you two numbers between one and 10. The first number will be the number of cups, the second number will be how many marbles you place in the cup. The number of total marbles in the cups is the product of the two numbers. This would be the opportune time to explain how multiplication is just an addition shortcut.

Front of the Class

Another activity to help usher in the idea of multiplication is an interactive one. Bring one student to the front of the class and ask the kids how many ears she has. After they respond two, explain that one person times two ears is two. Bring another student up and ask again how many ears and explain that two times two is four. Bring another up and continue to do so. This is just introductory, but it will give the kids a better idea of what multiplication is. This will also show them how basic multiplication is just counting up by a number, or factor.

Multiplication Bingo

To get your children motivated to learn their multiplication tables you can hold a weekly bingo game. Print the bingo card you can find in the resources section and pass it out to the children. They need to fill in the blank spaces with a selection of numbers at the bottom of the page. Have cards of multiplication problems that you can shuffle and mix up. Use only zero through nine for the factors of the card. Draw cards and announce them to the classroom. The children will mark the product of the problem, and the first to mark a straight or diagonal line wins.