We have worked hard to learn our multiplication facts over the last few months. We are now moving on to learning division, which makes knowing our basic facts SUPER important! Keep practicing your basic facts with these fun multiplication games. You will only need simple materials, such as a deck of cards or dice.
Pyramid (2 players)
Materials: Use a deck of cards with the numbers A to 10 (take out the face cards). A = 1
Goal: The goal is to get the highest number of points possible by finding the highest products.
How to play: Build a pyramid with 6 rows. The cards should be facing up.
Player 1 finds two “exposed” cards, then multiplies them together. The product is your point total for this round. Write it down on a white board. The next player(s) find their product, and writes their score on their white board.
Continue making the highest products. With each round, make sure you add your score to the previous one.
The person with the highest score at the end of the pyramid wins.
Multiplication War (2 players)
Materials: Use cards A to 10 (take out the face cards). Deal out all of the cards. Keep them in a pile in front of you. A = 1
Goal: Win all of your opponents cards.
How to play: At the same time each player flips 2 cards.
Multiply your two cards together. The person with the highest product wins all of the cards.
If both players have the same product, you have a “war”. Put two cards face down (so no one can see), then turn two cards face up. Whoever has the highest product this time wins all of the cards!
Keep going until someone has lost all of their cards.
Spoons (up to 6 players)
Materials: You need a deck of cards (A to 10) and some spoons. You need one less spoon than the number of players. You also need a white board and pen.
Goal: The goal is to make the target product on the board, and get a spoon before your opponents. The last person standing wins!
How to Play: Sit in a circle, put the whiteboard in the centre, and put the spoons around the outside of the board. Make sure you have one less spoon each round.
One player chooses a “target” number and writes it on the white board. It has to be a number that is a product of the numbers between A (1) and 10.
Deal 6 cards to each player. Your goal is to find 2 cards that can multiply to make the target number.
Pass one card to the left. Decide if you will keep it or give it away. Keep passing to the left until someone has the target number.
When you have the target number grab a spoon. The last person to grab a spoon is out!
*If no one gets the target number after 6 passes, choose one more card from the deck. Keep adding cards until someone gets the target number.