With a lot of changes happening, we haven’t recorded any videos for over a year. But, Ioan came to me excited about Star Wars Day and wanting to share his idea for the ‘Force Times Table’.
Resources
- Star wars characters
- Lightsabers
Method
What is multiplication?
Ioan set up his tray, grouping his characters in fours. The basic idea of multiplication is repeated addition. You take one number and add it together a number of times. This is why multiplication is sometimes called “times“.
Example: 3 multiplied by 4 .
3 + 3 + 3 + 3 = 12. We took the number 3 and added it together 4 times.
Multiplication is explained in more detail in the post ‘Two Times Table Shoe Shop‘.
Ioan knows that Finny has enjoyed playing ‘Numberblocks Four Times Table‘ recently, so wanted to test Darth Vader’s knowledge of the ‘Force Times Table’.
Next, Ioan came up with a challenge:
For each answer Ioan got right, Darth Vader needed to take a finger off his red lightsaber. For each question Ioan answered incorrectly, Ioan had to take a finger off the blue lightsaber:
They then swapped roles and played again. I never got tired of overhearing:
“May the fours be with you!”
DfES Outcomes for EYFS and National Curriculum (2013)
Numeracy Year 3 programme of study
Number – multiplication and division
- recall and use multiplication and division facts for the 4 times table
