Mathematics is about reasoning, patterns, and making sense of things. Children's literature provides a powerful opportunity to foster unique experiences in mathematics learning. Storybooks, thinking strategies, and manipulatives offer a winning combination for mastering multiplication facts based on conceptual ideas and relationships. The most…

Discusses examples of children's invented equal-sharing strategies that lay a foundation for reasoning about equivalence by connecting ideas from multiplication, division, and fractions. (KHR)

Explores how to use Gardner's Multiple Intelligence theory to help students' master multiplication. Focuses on helping children use their different intelligence strength to attain conceptual understanding of multiplication, develop their own thinking strategies for harder facts, and build mastery through practice and problem solving. (KHR)

Discusses mathematics education research on multiplication and division which implies that instruction should emphasize development of a sound conceptual basis for multiplication and division rather than memorization of tables and rules. Presents action research ideas. (10 references) (MKR)

Gives a multi-lesson project exploring multiplication arrays. Students are given opportunities to model multiplication tables with rectangular arrays, develop and extend ideas about patterns, organize and present visual patterns symbolically in tables, and represent visual patterns graphically. (MKR)