The Counting Stick
A vital tool for rehearsing the all important times tables! It creates a clear visual prompt whilst you’re teaching.
Recommended year group
Any! You can do ‘counting in 5s, 2s’ etc before times tables proper, and in the Foundation Stage it is a vital tool for simple counting.
Equipment needed
· Any metre stick with clear 10cm demarcations.
· Small cards listing the each set of multiples. If you laminate them they will last for ever
· Blutack to fix cards to stick.
How to use
Depending on the age/ability of the class, get them to put the multiples in the right place...you can differentiate and include the least able by asking them to put 1x, 2x , 10x on.
Or you can point at a blu tack blob and ask ‘what number goes here?’
Once all the multiples are in place, chant away...”one 3 is 3, two 3s are 6” etc holding the stick up as a visual prompt. Some children will like the challenge of chanting with eyes shut
Remove some multiples from the stick...can they still chant it all?
Use the core times table to help the children to realise what else they know....ask questions such as “4 x 30”....you can model how knowing 4x3 = 12 helps them know 4x 30 = 120. Similarly, they can see how 4 x 0.3 – 1.2
Top tips
A vital and often missed principle of times tables is that they don’t stop at 10x (the end of the stick) or even 12x.....times tables (multiples) go on for ever.
Challenge the children to keep counting on past 10x ....can they chant all the way to 20 x ? Who is still standing ?
If the stick went on for ever...can the children (on mini whiteboards, working with a partner) name a number that would be on it? Give out points for each suggestion and expect an explanation. An answer of 700 (on a 7x stick) would get 5/10 (“if 7 is a multiple of 7 then 700 must be”) ....whilst 294 (“I know 14 is a multiple of 7 so 140 is, then I doubled that to get 280 then I added 14 more”) might get 9/10!
Start the times table one notch in...the very end should always be 0. Anna forgot on this video clip!! Then 10x will be the right hand number.
Keep the times tables sets (different colour per table) in small plastic bags within a zip wallet bag. As you start a new times table, pick out the bags at random and ask “we’re going to chant the 4x table...could it be this set?” Depending on what number is top of the times table set in the bag the answer will be ‘no’ (if you hold up a bag showing 15) or ‘maybe’ (if you hold up a bag showing 12 or 20) . Then show the next card from a ‘maybe’ bag and ask ‘could it still be the 4x table’