I am SO excited to tell you that we have just completed the newest addition to our collection of animated DVDs: Skip Counting for Multiplication and MORE! This DVD is filled with FUN, pop and rock style songs that help kids learn to count by twos, threes, fours, fives, sixes, sevens, eights, nines, tens, elevens and twelves! PLUS, it has songs to teach keywords for multiplication, division, mode & range, and place value!
I have been using this with my second graders to help prepare them for learning their multiplication tables. We haven’t done anything more than just sing the songs occasionally with the demo DVD my husband put together for me about a month ago, and then I’ve also had the songs on my mp3 player since last fall. I usually put on the songs when it’s time to transition from one activity to another, telling the kids that they have to be finished transitioning by the time the music stops. The songs are so catchy and fun that I started hearing children singing and counting by threes, fours, fives, and sixes almost immediately!
I also explained to them- just once or twice in passing- that if they could skip count, they would also be able to do their times tables! I showed them that I could easily figure out what four times six is on my fingers by holding up six fingers, and then singing the count by fours song, pointing at one finger per number until I ran out of fingers. They all said, “THAT’S IT???? Is THAT all you have to do to learn your times tables?????” I nodded and they all looked at each other in amazement! Mystery solved!
I could see the wheels start turning in my higher, more competitive kids heads. They could be FAR ahead of everyone else quite easily! Now, even though we still haven’t even STARTED learning the times tables (we don’t do that at my school until third grade!) I know that several of my kids are learning them. Whenever I see a math problem with equal groups, I say something like, “Oh, we have equal groups here. I can count by sevens, or multiply by seven!” If I throw out a question to the group, “Does anyone know what five times four is? There is usually a short silence, and then a few kids start thinking and looking at their fingers, and then someone shouts out the answer- TWENTY!!!!!
I am SO PROUD of them and pleased with their progress! Now I know that there is more to the times tables than using the fingers to get there. Fluency is important. But this is surely a way to help kids get there! I hope that if you know some children that are struggling, you will pass this blog post along, and pass the word along to your fellow teachers, too! It WORKS! Check out the Skip Count Four song!
Here are the songs that are on this DVD. You can hear short snippets of the songs if you click here on the iTunes link, too!
Skip Counting Songs for Multiplication and More
1. Skip Count Two
2. Skip Count Three
3. Skip Count Four
4. Skip Count Five
5. Skip Count Six
6. Skip Count Seven
7. Skip Count Eight
8. Skip Count Nine
9. Skip Count Ten
10. Skip Count Eleven
11. Skip Count Twelve
12. Multiplication Key Words
13. Division Key Words
14. Mode & Range
15. Place Value
– Heidi
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