Fun First-Grade Multiplication Practice Kids Can Play Together

Multiplication starts as repeated addition and skip counting: 4 × 3 is four groups of three, and counting 3, 6, 9, 12 is a legitimate way to get there. Doubles come first and are worth drilling on their own, because doubling is multiplying by two and doubling twice is multiplying by four — a large slice of the tables arrives free.

First grade is where numbers stop being a recitation and become quantities that can be taken apart. The year's real targets are addition and subtraction within 20, number bonds to 10, and reading two-digit numbers as tens and ones. Progress is easiest to see in how a child answers rather than whether they are right: counting every object is early, counting on from the larger number is progress, and answering without counting is fluency.

1st graders are expected to skip count in 2s, 5s and 10s and see multiplication as equal groups; after that comes skip counting and doubles as the entry to multiplication.

Watch for counting the groups rather than the items in them when reading an array.