Useful last minute prep for the MTC!
In a previous blog I identified the 15 most likely questions to appear in the Year 4 MTC. This week I am sharing a chart which identifies the top 16 products which are most likely to make an appearance as answers in the MTC.
The top 16 products
Time spent between now and the MTC on getting to know the multiplicative building blocks of each of the top 16 products will be time well spent in the short and long term.
If you have the FunKey Times Tables cards, ask children to find cards for each of the products on this product chart. (If you don’t have cards yet, you can buy a pack here for £10, or an intervention set of six packs for £50.) Put those 16 cards in a FunKey cardholder and let your students spend time familiarising themselves with them. Notice the colours, the shapes. Say the multiplication (and division facts!) which you can build from the factors and the product. On cards with more than 2 factors, make the connections between different factor pairs.
Question: What is the connection between 6 x 8 = 48 and 12 x 4 = 48?
Answer: when one factor doubles and the other halves, the product stays the same.
Get counters out and let children see the connections themselves.
Using the Cardholder
Children can test themselves using the cardholder. Watch this video to see how. Or children can test each other. Can they say all the different ways to make the product without seeing the card?
Test papers for the top 16 products
And finally, when they have rehearsed and are primed for success, they can test out their knowledge on these downloadable times tables tests. Each one is 40 questions solely on the target 16 products. There are 8 different tests, all on the same 16 products. If your students can nail these test in 4 mins or less, they are likely to find the MTC a doddle!
Good luck to one and all!