• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Blog
  • Podcast
  • Course
    • Teaching Every Reader
  • Subscriber Freebies
  • About
  • Contact
  • Shop
  • Member Login

The Measured Mom

Education resources for parents and teachers

  • Alphabet
  • Reading
    • Structured literacy
    • Printable Books
    • Pre-Reading
    • Phonics
    • Sight Words
    • Comprehension
    • Fluency
    • Vocabulary
  • Writing
    • Grammar
    • Handwriting
    • Spelling
    • Writing in Pre-K
    • Writing in K-3
  • Math
    • Counting
    • Number Recognition
    • Addition & Subtraction
    • Colors, Shapes & Patterns
    • Visual Discrimination
    • Time, Money & Measurement
    • Place Value
    • Graphs
    • Multiplication & Division
    • Fractions
    • Problem Solving
  • Book Lists
    • Letter of the Week
    • Early Childhood Themes
    • Pre-Reading Skills
    • Math Concepts
    • Writing Mentor Texts
    • Versions of Familiar Tales
    • Holidays and Seasonal
    • History
    • Leveled Book Lists
  • Join Membership
Home
  • Shop
  • Blog
    • Alphabet
    • Reading
    • Writing
    • Math
    • Book Lists
  • Podcast
  • Courses
    • Teaching Every Reader
    • Teaching Every Writer
  • Subscriber Freebies
  • About
  • Membership
  • Contact

PSPKK1234 Comments

The best order for teaching multiplication facts

This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Sharing is caring!

  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Looking for the best order for teaching multiplication facts? You’re in the right place!

This post contains affiliate links.

Have you been wondering what order to teach the multiplication facts?

If you Google it, you’ll find quite a few recommendations.

I recently shared a mini-course inside The Measured Mom Plus with tips for teaching multiplication facts.

In that course I shared a recommended order for teaching multiplication facts, based on the book Mastering the Basic Math Facts in Multiplication and Division.

Why not teach the facts in order from 0-12?

We’re going for understanding, not just memorization. It makes sense to choose a particular order, because that will let us start with the simpler facts first and help our  students build on the knowledge they already have as they learn each new set of facts.

Teach the foundational facts first

Start with x2.

I know, I know. Most people will tell you to start with x1 or x0, because they’re the easiest to memorize.

The reason I recommend starting with x2 is because we want to start with the concept of multiplication. Kids have experience with doubling and grouping in pairs,  so it makes sense to start with x2.

Next, teach x10.

10 is a foundational number that students have a lot of experience with. They know how to skip count by 10, group in tens, and work with base ten blocks.

Continue with x5.

Students know how to skip count by 5. And now that they know how to multiply by 10, we can teach them that multiplying by 5 is half of multiplying by 10.

NOW teach x1 and x0.

Yes, it’s easy to memorize these facts, but they can be difficult to visualize. Now that your students have a conceptual understanding of multiplication, it’s a good time to teach x1 and x0.

Move on to the derived facts

Teach x11.

Multipying by 11 is the same as multiplying by 10 and adding one group. You can also teach the shortcut of writing the factor twice, but this only works for multiplying 11 by 1-9.

If students are multiplying 10 x 11, they can think of it as 10 x 10 (100) and then add one more group of 10. 10 x 11 = 110

Next comes x3.

Teach this fact by helping your learners understand that multiplying by 3 is like tripling a number. Teach them the shortcut of doubling the other factor and adding one more group.

For 4 x 3, they can double the 4 (to get 8) and then add one more group of 4. 8 + 4 = 12.

Move on to x4.

Multiplying by 4 is like doubling the product of a the x2 fact.

Teach x6.

I like the shortcut of multiplying by 5 and adding one more group.

If a child is doing 7 x 6, she can first think about 7 x 5, which equals 35. Add one more group of 7, and you get an answer of 42.

See how it helps to know those foundational facts first?

Now teach x9.

There are a lot of tricks for teaching the x9 facts. If you want to simply build on previously learned facts, just teach students to multiply by 10 and subtract one group.

If a learner is doing 8 x 9, he can think about 8 x 10, which equals 80, and subtract one group of 8 to get 8 x 9 = 72.

There’s a really cool trick to help students multiply by 9. Lead them to see that each two-digit answer to a x9 fact has two digits that add up to 9.

For example, 3 x 9 = 27 (2 + 7 = 9)

To use this trick when solving a fact, they need to take the factor that isn’t 9, decrease it by 1, and put that number at the start of the answer.

4 x 9 = 3_

For the second digit, they choose the number that, when added to the first digit, will equal 9.

So 4 x 9 = 36

(For all the tips for teaching x9, check out this post by Shelly Gray Teaching.)

Teach x8.

If your students know their 4’s facts, they just need to double multiplication by 4.

For 5 x 8, they can start with 5 x 4 = 20, and then double that answer to get 40.

Next comes x7.

These aren’t the simplest facts, but if your students have learned all the other facts in the order I recommend, they only have a couple left.

A great mental math strategy for x7 is to multiply by 5 and add a double.

For example, for 6 x 7 the students can multiply 6 x 5 to get 30. Adding a double (of 6) would mean that 30 +12 = 42, so 6 x 7 = 42.

Last is x12.

We’ve reached the end! Students only have one fact left to learn: 12 x 12 = 144.

Hurray!

But if they need a mental math strategy for the x12 facts, teach your students to multiply by 10 and add a double

With 8 x 12, they can multiply 8 x 10 first, to get 80. If they add a double of 8 to the answer, they will get 80 + 16 = 96. Therefore, 8 x 12 = 96.

Want a printable list with
shortcuts for learning each fact?

You’ve got it!

P.S. Did you know that this printable is part of the mini-course, Tips for Teaching Multiplication Facts? It’s part of The Measured Mom Plus. Learn more about membership here.

Get your free shortcuts for multiplication facts!

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD

P.S. Did you know that our affordable membership, The Measured Mom Plus, gives you instant access to 2000+ printable math and literacy resources? Check it out here.

Free Math Printables for Pre-K-3rd Grade

Join our email list and get this sample pack of time-saving resources from our membership site! You'll get printables for counting, addition and subtraction, measuring, problem solving, and more!

Sharing is caring!

  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Filed Under: Math, Multiplication & Division Tagged With: second grade, third grade, multiplication

You May Also Enjoy These Posts:

40 math games for math fact fluency Math activities with unifix cubes Addition color by number
How to teach revising and editing in K-2
Versions of Cinderella

Reader Interactions

4 Comments

  1. Jeff C Chalfant

    October 22, 2019 at 9:27 am

    I agree with ALMOST everything. But why even bother teaching the 11’s and 12’s? That is an outdated construct. Teaching through 10 makes sense (we have a base-10 number system), but other than that the utility of knowing all SINGLE-digit multiplication and division facts is the priority for future multi-digit multiplication/division. Maybe there is something I am not considering . . . let me know.

    Reply to this comment
    • Anna G

      October 27, 2019 at 7:53 pm

      I definitely don’t think it’s a must, but I think that knowing an extra set of facts by memory makes mental math (and thus, problem solving) easier.

      Reply to this comment
    • Sarah

      July 3, 2020 at 12:31 pm

      Haha. I JUST told my friend the same thing. If I went and quizzes all the adults in my neighborhood, I bet most would fail at reciting them.

      Reply to this comment
      • V Dean

        September 19, 2021 at 11:15 am

        Always start with the number you are teaching. If you are teaching the 3s, you should start with 3 as in 3 x 4, 3 x 5, etc. as in 3 groups of 4, 3 groups of 5, etc. Then your method to double the 4 or 5 makes more sense. The same with other numbers. 6 x 7 is 6 groups of 7. 7 x 8 is 7 groups of 8. The order in which the fact is stated matters.

        Reply to this comment

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Grade Level Key

  • PS Preschool (ages 2-3 years)
  • PK Pre-K (ages 4-5 years)
  • K Kindergarten
  • 1 1st grade
  • 2 2nd grade
  • 3 3rd grade

Hello, I’m Anna!

Welcome to The Measured Mom. I’m so glad you’re here!

Meet Our Team

Free Math Printables for Pre-K-3rd Grade

Join our email list and get this sample pack of time-saving resources from our membership site! You'll get printables for counting, addition and subtraction, measuring, problem solving, and more!

Shop our store!

120 Print and Play Math & Literacy Games for K-2

$15.00

Preschool Math Curriculum for Home

$24.00

Place Value Task Cards for 2nd Grade

$8.00

Shop all resources

Members get more!

The Measured Mom Plus is the perfect online membership for Pre-K to third grade educators.

Learn More

Love Freebies?

Subscribing to our email newsletter is completely free. And when you do, you'll get access to our library of subscriber freebies! Sign up below to get access to a wonderful variety of math and literacy resources.

Join our online course and get the tools you need to teach every learner in K-2!

Confidently teach every reader in your classroom. Still have time to live your life.

Learn More

Listen and subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, and Stitcher

Check out these recent podcast episodes:

  • What is set for variability? A conversation with Dr. Marnie Ginsberg
  • How to help students improve language comprehension – a conversation with Dr. Karen Dudek-Brannan
  • What we got wrong (and right) with balanced literacy – a conversation with Dr. Nathaniel Swain
More Episodes

Check out these FREE email courses...

Get strategies and tools to teach a particular topic with a free 5-day email series! Just click an image to sign up. We recommend signing up for just one at a time.

For Pre-K Educators

How to teach phonological & phonemic awareness

How to teach phonological & phonemic awareness

Learn how to develop this important pre-reading skill with a free 5-day email series!

How to teach preschool math

How to teach preschool math

Learn exactly what to teach your preschoolers in this free 5-day series!

For Kinder & 1st Grade Educators

How to teach kids to sound out words

How to teach kids to sound out words

Learn my top strategies for teaching kids to "sound it out"

How to teach sight words

How to teach sight words

Get strategies and tools for teaching sight words to young learners!

Tips for teaching phonics

Tips for teaching phonics

Sign up for our free 5-day email series to learn what phonics skills to teach and how to structure your phonics lessons!

For 2nd & 3rd Grade Educators

How to build reading fluency

How to build reading fluency

Learn smart strategies for helping your learners become fluent readers with this free 5-day series!

How to build reading comprehension

How to build reading comprehension

Discover the essential reading comprehension strategies for 2nd & 3rd grade and how to teach them!

“Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” –Matthew 6:33

Copyright © 2023 The Measured Mom •  All rights reserved  •  Privacy & Disclosure Statement  •  Site Design by Emily White Designs