Songs, Tips and Tricks for Memorizing Times Tables 1 - 10

I am going to go through what I did to learn the times tables and some of the songs and tricks that I used when I was learning my times tables.  They are very fun, catchy and they really do help.  If you are a teacher, have a child or a little sibling learning their times tables, show these to them.  (Some of my examples say to use your fingers, I know some people do not like when their students use their fingers because it can cause habits, but it is one of the ways that really helped me learn my times tables.)

1.  When you multiply anything by the number 1, you simply get the number you multiplied 1 by.  For example: 1 x 6 will be 6,  and 1 x 8 will be 8.  Whenever you multiply a number by 1 it will not change the value that you had at the beginning.

2.  When you multiply by 2, it is the same as adding 2 to the previous answer.  This one will be easy to memorize.  For example 2 x 1 is 2, to get the next answer add 2 to the answer you just got, so, 2 + 2 is 4 which is equal to 2 x 2. From there 4 + 2 which is 6, equal to 2 x 3.  You can do it that way but that may get confusing.  I used to count by twos on my fingers until I memorized the 2 times table.

3.  I found a fun Schoolhouse Rock video on youtube called "3 is a Magic Number."  It is very catchy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aU4pyiB-kq0 I just memorized this times table as well.  When we get to higher numbers there are some tricks.  You can also use a number line and start at 3 which is 3 x 1, and skip two numbers each time and the third number is a multiple of three.  For example: 3, 4, 5, 6  you would skip the two numbers after three, which are four and five.  You could do this after every multiple of three.  You can use this number line trick for any number, all you have to do is subtract 1 from the number that you are trying to find the multiples of so for example using three you would do 3 - 1, getting 2 and cross two numbers off each time starting with three.

4.  For your 4 times tables, what I did was count on my fingers, or in my head, by twos, but instead of just once for each number, I do it twice because 2 x 2 is 4.  The way I count in my head is 2, 4   6, 8   10, 12   14, 16   each time you do that you are multiplying by 4.  I found this fun video online for the 4 times tables, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Osbrc50vEKo

5.  Whenever you multiply by five, your answer will always end in 5 or 0!  Simply count by fives.  This one should not be much of a problem to memorize!

6.  I do not have very unique tricks for the 6 times tables (sorry!), this is one of those that you have to memorize but an easy way to memorize it is by song.  I found a fun song on youtube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WwhpxWf1ZU

7.  As I said with 6 I do not know any fun tricks for the 7 times table.  I always found singing numbers in songs makes them so much easier to memorize.  Especially if you put the numbers in any of your favorite songs, that makes them fun and easy to memorize!

8.  For the 8 times table, I remember drawing spiders and counting the legs on them and then seeing how many spiders that were there, since each spider has 8 legs on them.  This was always fun because we did not just memorize these ones, we had a visual.  Visuals may be good because it actually shows students what they are doing.

9.  The 9 times tables were always my very favorite.  The finger trick was so awesome and helped me immensely! My mom taught me this when I was struggling with my times tables (she is a teacher!).  Put your ten fingers in front of you.  Now for 9 x 1 put your first finger down (for the 1), so the amount of tens is 0 and the amount of ones to the right of the finger you put down is 9 so the answer is 9.  Lets do a harder number, 7.  So put your seventh finger from your left down, all of you fingers before the finger that is put down count as tens and the fingers after the one you put down are ones so that would be 6 tens and 3 ones, therefore the answer is 63.  Once you get the hang of it, it is extremely helpful! Here is a video if you need more of a visual explanation.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPgs9LmV5wc

10.  The 10 times tables are extremely easy, every answer will end with a 0! So when you do this you just put the number that you are multiplying by 10 with a 0 on the end of it.  For example: 10 x 1 = 10, 10 x 2 = 20, 10 x 3 = 30 ... 10 x 11 = 110 ...etc.

I hope I helped you with the times tables, these tips and tricks helped me to learn them!