What it shows
Landing on a square means answering a multiplication fact. Repeated practice helps children learn tables and see the patterns in them.
The science
Multiplication is repeated addition: 4 times 3 means 3 added four times. Each table forms a pattern, for example the 5 table always ends in 5 or 0, and the digits of the 9 table add up to 9. Playing with the board helps memory, and spotting patterns is a mathematical skill.
Materials
Cost: free. Many items come from home or from waste; spare parts such as LEDs, motors and wire are in the store.
- A flattened cereal box about 40 cm square
- Markers and a ruler
- Bottle caps as tokens in different colours
- A die made from a folded paper cube
- Coloured paper for snakes and ladders
- Scissors (adult help)
Safety
For this project: An adult must cut the card. Keep bottle caps away from small children.
Never use mains electricity: power models with cells, batteries or a low-voltage adapter. Sharp and hot tools, flames and lab chemicals need an adult or your teacher beside you. Keep magnets, button cells and small parts away from young children, and wash your hands after making.
All the safety rulesStep by step
8 steps. Do them in order, and test each part before you go on to the next. Write what you notice in a notebook as you go.
Rule the board into a 10 by 10 grid and number the squares from 1 to 100.
Draw ladders between squares and snakes down to lower squares using strips of coloured paper.
Write a multiplication fact like 6 x 7 on 20 squares and put the answers on the back of the board.
Roll the die and move your token along the numbered squares.
If you land on a fact square, answer it; a correct answer means you stay, a wrong answer means you go back two.
Check answers using the back of the board.
Play with a friend and note which tables are hard.
Write the patterns you notice in the 5 and 9 tables.
What you should see
A game board in use, and a record of which tables each player knows well.
Viva questions
A teacher or a judge will ask how it works. Try to answer each question before you open it, then compare.
1What is 6 times 7?
42.
2What is multiplication?
Repeated addition.
3What do the digits of the 9 table add to?
Always 9.
4How can you check 4 times 8?
Add 8 four times to get 32.
Take it further
Make a division board using the same facts in reverse.
Change one thing, measure what happens, and add a table or chart of your readings: that is what turns a model into your own investigation.
Free ebooks for this project
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