The other evening I shared a picture on Instagram of a stack of multiplication “fast Facts,” that I was grading. The caption talked about the strategies by Van de Walle that I use and many of you asked if I would share them. I will….gladly! But first, a story.
I was that kid in third grade. You know the one, the teacher thought I NEVER practiced my facts at home because I just didn’t know them…at all. The truth was that my dad worked with me nightly, in fact many nights ended in tears, sometimes from me….sometimes from him 
! I just couldn’t seem to get those facts down and I was turtle slow at recalling them. So, I was that kid. The one who got pulled into the hall with every helper mom that visited our room. I felt stupid and like I was terrible at math. In truth, math just didn’t make sense to me. I didn’t understand how or why it worked.
! I just couldn’t seem to get those facts down and I was turtle slow at recalling them. So, I was that kid. The one who got pulled into the hall with every helper mom that visited our room. I felt stupid and like I was terrible at math. In truth, math just didn’t make sense to me. I didn’t understand how or why it worked.
Fast forward years later to a workshop I took on teaching multiplication to students. I sat in the meeting with my mouth hanging open thinking that I wish my third grade teacher had taught multiplication like this. It made So. Much. Sense!!!! I have been teaching these strategies faithfully, every year and I have seen a huge improvement. They aren’t the only way to do multiplication and my kiddos know that. They know about skipping counting, repeated addition, they have lots of different strategies. But, most of them will choose to use these. They are efficient. They can get to the product quickly.
I uploaded a document explaining all of the strategies HERE. Be sure to read the last section about the helping fact strategies, those are some of the most helpful!
I also have posters and strategy practice included in my Multiplication…A “Monster,” Pack of Resources pack in my TpT store. It will be on sale for the rest of the week for those of you who are interested in the purchasing it for the posters and strategy practice! Just click on the picture to check it out!
I hope this helps with some of the questions you had the other night! If you have other questions about how I teach the strategies or how I use them in my room, just comment below and I will get them answered!
Have a great night everyone!
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