Use of visuals
- 100 charts or other number charts so kids can see the numbers they are saying, or see the amount of numbers being skipped. Saxon Math 3, Lesson 110 has multiple 100 charts where students are to color in multiples of 3 on one chart, mutliples of 4 on one chart, mutliples of 5 on another chart, etc and then identify patterns.
- Count actual objects. Group them together by 6s, then count by 6. When possible use items that naturally go in these number groups. For example, pairs of socks, count by 2s. Nickels to count by fives. Use a cars for 4s and count the wheels. Food often comes in packages of 6 or 8. However, you might not have 12 packages of of hamburger buns on hand to practice 8s!
- Flashcards of the multiplication facts, for the third grade and up. Remember, that to be a memory master, the older students need to know the multiplication facts, not just the skip counting.
- Worksheets. Here are a few I found from Half-a-Hundred Acre Wood.
Teaching Squares
Aside from just memorization through skip chanting and singing, it is helpful to use visual and real life application for teaching squares. When a student can see it, it becomes obvious why we call these numbers perfect squares - they form a square when we use tiles or color in a graph.Saxon Math 3- Lesson 67 Use a piece of graphing paper and color in 10 by 10 squares, 9 by 9 squares, 8 by 8 squares, etc. This teaches area, arrays, squares, etc. Apply it to real life, by measuring square feet of a room, or squares inches on a piece of material. It is helpful to count tiles on a floor or a checkered type pattern on material, where you can actually see the number of squares adding up to the total square measurement.
Games
- "Buzz" the Number
- Pat and clap games. Pat, pat, clap - for multiples of 3s. Count silently on the pats and out loud on the claps.
- Online games and drills. Math-U-See, Toy Theater,
