My Canadian co-worker in true Canadian fashion taught us "Times Table Hockey", a six man on six man game that inspired our little sponges to learn those multiplication facts. And let me tell you, kids loved it, parents raved about it, and teachers got a little competitive about it. A two week tournament with brackets and a championship game set the stakes high for our 9 year olds. When it came down to my class and Class 3K for 1st place, I gotta say that my palms were sweaty and my heart was racing. The posters were flying and crowds were cheering. Teachers from other classes wandered out of their rooms to see the commotion and join the chanting. And multiplication facts were being shouted out, memorized, and learned.
Life-lessons came out of it too... Lessons on good sportsmanship were easily integrated as well as the lesson that no one seems to teach anymore: NOT EVERYONE WINS. There were losers and winners. And we all still had fun.
Why did this work? How did we get every 3rd grader to want to learn those facts? Because it was a competition. They wanted to win. And they wanted to play the game. Simply put, it was fun.
Here's how we play the game:
Six players on each team with three rows. Last row is the goalie, middle row 2 defense men, and front row 3 offense men facing the same set-up from the other team. Center (of the 3 offense) faces center of the other team to start the game. Referee calls out a multiplication fact. (We used playing cards in two stacks, pulling the top ones off the pile to give a random fact.) The first kid to say the correct answer wins and moves across the other teams offense, answering facts from the referee. It's one man on one man, giving the answer to the referee's fact through each teams offense and defense. The first team to beat the opposing team's goalie wins that goal and earns a point. Anytime the round gets down to only the goalies standing and facing off, we all shout "Goalie, goalie guacamole!" (Just for fun.) The team with the most points after several rounds wins.
I highly recommend "Times Table Hockey" to any Grade 3 or 4 teacher who wants their students to memorize those facts. Now when I join the game with the kids, they can beat me half the time. It works, and it's highly motivating.
More than one parent said to me during conferences this year, "I don't know what you did, but my kid loved learning the times tables."
