Five in a Row Multiplication Game - Make Practicing Facts Fun!

Hi All,

"Five in a Row" is a good game to play at home or in school for multiplication facts practice. In this game you are given the products and you have to find the matching fact on a multiplication chart. Sort of reverse thinking. It's always good to come at a concept from a variety of directions.

This is an easy game to understand, where chance and fact knowledge both play a part in who might come out the winner. It provides plenty of compelling practice with facts.

Directions:

1. Make a copy of the the product cards sheet for each player. Have players select a crayon or colored pencil to lightly color over their product sheet. They should then cut out the individual cards. For long-lasting play, have students glue the sheet to oaktag or cardboard first.

2. Have each player shuffle their product cards and place them face down as their deck.

3. Put the multiplication facts board between the two players.

4. The object of the game is to fill a row with your color product cards. For quicker play, make the goal to get 3 in a row or 5 in a row, in any direction.

5. Players take turns pulling product cards from their decks and placing them on the board. If you pull say, the product 10, you have some choices on where you want to place your card. Could be 5 x 2 or 2 x 5 or 1 x 10 or 10 x 1.

6. If a card is placed in error, and the partner recognizes it, the partner may remove the errant card from the board as long as they can justify why.

7. This game can be played again and again. There is some strategy involved when you begin to think about trying to block your partner from getting several cards in a row.

This is a great game to send home in a packet for homework practice.

8. Going Super Deep - One experience that may at first glance appear to be a big waste of time, can actually make for very deep learning. Have students make their own game board and product cards. By doing this, students become intimately familiar with every detail of the multiplication table in a slowed-down manner, as they literally write and cut out every fact and product. They will notice the patterns as they create and arrange the facts. They will also take better care of the materials, as they have made them by hand. You'd be surprised at how much can be learned.

Here are links to the reproducibles. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Mifv_T98vZvFI4jVnnXT8e4zFqeRfT1O/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qNOENljfvdGl9WTY6HrjnzDrqvdZ1Gf9/view?usp=sharing

Best,

Bob

Comments

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