Learning Times Tables Using Fingers
- Posted by Karen Goode
- Categories Blog
- Date October 24, 2019
- Comments 0 comment
Recent research has suggested that using fingers to help learn mathematical facts can be really helpful for children. Click here to find out more.
Here are some tips on how children can use their fingers to learn their times tables:
Learning the two times table in this way can also help reinforce how to add ten onto a single digit number.
Using fingers in this way can help children visualise which numbers appear on the tips of their fingers. This can help improve recall of multiples of three.
This time children can visualise which numbers appear on the last digit of each hand.
The next trick seems quite complicated, but it is easy once you get the hang of it.
Finally, here is a trick for the nine times table which is easy for children to learn.
You might think that some of these methods encourage children to just count on. In the end, they will need to just remember the facts. This is true, but for some children using their fingers can help put these facts into memory. The physical act of using fingers can help the brain to recall the information being processed. The above research has shown that the brain can ‘see’ representations of our fingers even when they’re not being used. It has indicated that even when facts are committed to memory, the brain still ‘sees’ the fingers.