Multiplication War

Having a good knowledge of our multiplication facts is important for us in 4th grade.  Fact fluency enables us to perform more in depth math calculations while not having to focus heavily on figuring out our multiplication tables since they'll come more easily to us the more we work with them.  One fun way to practice our facts is through card games like multiplication war.

In multiplication war, students flip over two cards and multiply them (the factors) together to get the product.  For our purposes J = 11, Q = 12, K = 0 and A = 1.  It's a lot of fun anticipating the factors and coming up with the correct product to win the cards.  Of course we've had to make a few house rules such as first one to answer cannot answer again in the same round if a mistake is made, thus allowing the other person a chance to find the product.  It's always great fun and amusing to hear products being announced animatedly in the hallway.