Learn The Times Tables With Stories

Students will learn 4 of the multiplication facts from fun, easy to remember stories.  

We start by learning the 'Magic Numbers', a set of images that represent the digits 1-9.  These images will represent the numbers in a math fact like 6 x 7 or 8 x 4.  The images have visual, auditory and kinesthetic connection to each number as well as a dominant color to make it easy to remember.  

A spider  is the image for the number 8 because it has a body shaped like an 8 (visual), has 8 legs (kinesthetic) and it is black like all the other images for numbers that end with an 8.  

A tricycle is the image for the number 3 because it has handlebars shaped like a 3 (visual), has 3 wheels (kinesthetic) and is called a three-wheeler (auditory) and is red like all the other images for numbers that end with 3. 

Next we tell stories with these images.  They are short, fun stories that change each time to include the students, their friends and their families.  Making the stories personal makes them more memorable.  Any family or friends included will only be referenced to by first name only.   One story is about a crazy mom trying to kill a spider with a golf club and a window getting broken in the chaos.  Another is about a girl and her friend stacking books on a baseball cap making a tower so tall that they fall over and break the windshield of a very expensive car.     

In the complete class students learn 9 stories each session, and 27 main stories in all for the larger math facts.  For the remaining smaller facts including the 2's the students will learn even simpler stories plus strategies that help see natural patterns in numbers that will help them with addition and subtraction down the road.  

Once the students are familiar with the stories, they are walked through the process of finding the answer using the images.  The script is the same for each story, which means each time they go through the steps they get faster.  Here is what it might look like for the story about the girls stacking books:

Q: What's the picture for the number 7?  
A: A book (It opens up like a 7 and is called 'The 7 Dwarfs'.)
Q: What's the picture for the number 6?
A: A baseball cap (it is shaped like a 6 from underneath and has 6 sections.)
Q: What gets broken? 
A: The windshield of the car.
Q: How many wheels does it have?
A: 4 (so it's forty something...)
Q: How many wipers does it have?
A: 2, so it's 42.

This process gets faster each time to the point where they 'just know' the answer. In many cases the writing can't keep up with the mind as the images and numbers come almost instantly.  

This session will be guided by a PowerPoint presentation.  I will tell each short story using still images to accompany each one.  A story might sound like this:

"Rebecca mom was in the kitchen when a giant spider crawled under the door and scared her.  She tried to squish the spider with a golf club.  She swung and missed the spider, but smashed the window of the house."

These stories have been told a thousand times, each time adapted to include the names of the learners and their friends and families.  The pictures that go with each question capture the entire story.  They take less than 30 seconds to and are very to the point of what needs to be remembered.  Many students have figured out the story just by looking at the picture.  

Though it is interactive, it is guided toward the students mastering the times tables.  Each student will do hand gestures (such as pretending to open a book or making the shape of a kite) for each step to show they understand and are working to remember the stories.  

The hardest part of doing a new method is staying away from ineffective ones like counting fingers or doing the 9's trick (which would be effective if it worked for each digit).   If they haven't started to learn the times tables or struggle to do facts other than the 5's or 2's, then this is the best case scenario to start learning.  

If they are ready to work, they will do well, no matter what their ability in math so far.