Multiplication Mats

     

Make math easy with Multiplication Mats! 

Your students will transition into multiplication more smoothly with this simple to use product that gives students concrete support.

Most of my third grade students have difficulty transitioning from addition to multiplication, even though they're very closely related. I racked my brain on new ways to help my students and was suddenly inspired by a cute 100 Day Counting Mat that I saw on another blog. Since I was snowed in, I decided to take advantage of the time away from school to create these hands-on math tools. When I got back to school, I shot them off my printer. My incredibly awesome media team laminated them the same day!
(Thanks Stacy & Sheila!)
My students loved them!

These can be used whole group or in math centers!

After I modeled how to "play" with the multiplication mats, my students worked with peer partners on a factor of their choice.

Once my students got the procedure down, they could switch mats to use a variety of factors. 

These are perfect to use for math centers or reteaching for struggling students. 

I also pull these out to give some of my students extra support on independent multiplication work as needed. 

Multiplication Mats give students constant visual reminders of the process they need to use to read, write and solve any multiplication problem with factors 1-10. 

You can use the printable recording sheets, and then let students cut them apart to use as multiplication flashcards. Or, to save on printing, let student write out their multiplication sentences on a piece of notebook paper.

I store my mats with my multiplication math centers in skinny tubs that are color-coded by skills (multiplication/division, addition/subtraction, fractions, geometry, etc.)

My kids also LOVE to use these Math apps when we get the iPad cart.