Developing fluency with number facts requires not only the ability to recall facts, but also an understanding of the:
- commutative property (i.e. 3 \(\times\) 4 and 4 × 3 are equivalent)
- distributive property (e.g. 6 \(\times\) 8 = 6 \(\times\) 5 + 6 \(\times\) 3)
- relationship between multiplication and division.
Activities can provide opportunities to build up a range of strategies such as:
- doubling and halving
- commutativity
- partitioning numbers into known facts using distributive property.
These strategies assist in developing number fact fluency and flexibility.
Discussions about the facts students know and do not know can assist in building up further facts.
For example, knowing 10 \(\times\) 5 can assist in working out 9 \(\times\) 5, 5 \(\times\) 5, 10 \(\times\) 50.
Useful resources include:
- rectangular arrays
- a 1–100 grid
- multiplication fact grid
- triangle flash cards (card with the number at the top and the two factors in either corner).
