Multiplication with Base 10 Blocks

Learning multiplication with base ten blocks is a joy. It makes it easy and understandable. Sevens are the last table to teach (see EZ-PZ Overview).  But they can still be fun and Lucky Seven Sampson is a favorite of most students. Building a pyramid out of seven blocks is a fun math activity. You could draw a picture of it too. You will find this is a much more effective way to learn and master multiplication tables. The idea behind this page is to spark your imagination. i have lots of games and activities that i use that i know work. That doesn't mean you can't make up some of your own. Use your imagination. Make up games. Have them make up games. 

Multiplication is the milestone in mathematics.

i can't emphasize teaching multiplication early & often enough. here are many games and activities designed to help you pupils MASTER multiplication tables all the way out to 20x20.

If your children are very young, and even if they aren't, singing songs and learning patterning early on, really makes a big difference. check out this page i built that has Multiplication Rock Videos from the '70s on it. 

This page has some additional "how to" videos to help you use base 10 blocks to teach multiplication there are more resources for complete mastery contained on the links you see here and of course behind this paywall. i show you how to play with purpose in unrehearsed live lessons with actual students. You can see them learning.

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When in doubt use the Module III password.

Multiplication is among the first and most important milestones in mathematics. The mathematics is just counting, multiplication allows us to count very, very fast. This way when we use the mathematics for critical thinking and problem solving the computation doesn't slow us down, it also goes a long way to lowering "cognitive load."

These are additional methods but not the only methods...this example is A way not THE way. If you don't have manipulatives how about a deck of cards? There are lots of math games with playing cards for multiplication and more.

Use music and sing songs, play games, play multiplication video games...mix it up and above all have fun with it. 

Playing with base ten blocks is fun but who wants to spend a whole hour on sevens over and over again?  My fourth grade teacher, we spent an hour a day listening to a record over and over again and racing each other on the chalk board writing out multiplication tables.  Did not make me love math. My sons endured similar nonsense with worksheets when they already knew them before they got there...rather than do the same thing over and over again in the same hour mix it up.  Do some algebra, percentages, maybe some subtraction...all in the same hour.  "Variety is the spice of life". 

ERRATA:

Also NOTE near the end where i add 6 of each piece it should be according to the symbols 6 taken 4 times, in other words 4 sixes NOT 4 taken 6 times...but the little kids DON'T CARE.

(6)(4) = six taken four times...

i was adding more ones, twos, threes and fours to make a point then i made an error in notation...the across, over pattern is VERY important. The order is multiplicand, multiplier, product. i should have either gotten out sixes or put the four first and then the six (4)(6) and made the rectangle four across and six up because what we had was four taken six times and although they are the same amount the symbols and rectangles need to match. i have years and years to instill the correct patterning with them...the concept of adding three more was what we were going for...don't get paralyzed by the fear you are going to do it wrong. Mistakes are unavoidable but are easy to correct, and sometimes make the point more powerfully than if you hadn't. These are "teachable moments".

20x20 matrix can be mastered by 7 or 8.

The younger you start the easier it will be.

Hopefully your students are very young but if the are older and still haven't got their multiplication tables down there is still hope. Often, i end up having to teach multiplication to students who are having a hard time with algebra...usually along with fractions. You can, by the way, use fractions to teach multiplication too.

Look for more videos for that here 'soon'. Right now there these three but there are more on the way. Currently there are over 1,000 videos on various topics on YouTube. Here is a relevant vid showing how to teach multiplication in other ways and in conjunction with other lessons, like addends for example:

Remember, take your time, if you start early, a few facts at a time is enough. Just have them listen to the patterns then introduce drawings and then at last symbols. My boys wached all the multiplication rock vids twice a day for a while there. Because they liked the songs...girls can watch "Frozen" over and over again...they can watch these too. Then one day they don't watch the same video over and over again an the window for teaching multiplication with ease closes. You can still do it, it's just harder ad more time consuming. 

If they are already teen-agers, it's better to use algebra to teach them multiplication rather than just drills and straight up multiplication tables. Besides they know algebra is supposed to be hard so when algebra is easy and fun so is the multiplication required to do it. Teens are usually too cool for multiplication rock. 

You can't play "wrong".

You can play without purpose. 

I made this video specifically for a parent who was worried about playing wrong...

If you have a Module III password you have access to all kinds of pages that teach mathematics. All of this is made much easier if Multiplication has been mastered; however, almost any of the mathematics but especially fractions can be used to help Master Multiplication. Math teaches math, and the only way to learn math is to do math. 

Module I has all 10 Series A Manuals, but here is an Easter Egg for you, click this link, it takes you to the Series A Multiplication Manual. For free no password required. This page has additional links and video to help you get going with multiplication. 

If you liked that page, perhaps you would like to see all the Series A Manuals go to the Password Info page for details.

If you have a Module III password, use it here for more lessons with base ten blocks you won't find anywhere else:

Enter
When in doubt use the Module III password.

Go Home from teach Multiplication.

Multiplication Table
Free Series A Multiplication Manual
Multiplication Rock

Use higher power algebra to teach Addition and Multiplication. 

Be sure to visit my blog and watch a few videos that show how to use 2nd, 3rd and 4th degree algebra to actually teach addition and multiplication...watch these same toddlers being taught with manipulatives designed to teach higher power Algebra.  Fractions teach algebra.

"Keep computations to the lowest level of the multiplication table." ~David Hilbert

"Too often we give children answers to remember rather than problems to solve." ~Roger Lewin

"Learning is not the product of teaching. Learning is the product of the activity of learners." ~John Holt

"We learn to do something by doing it. There is no other way." ~John Holt

"Collaboration is multiplication". ~John C. Maxwell