Times Table Grid: Fill In

Wide cells, short rows

Cells of 22 by 12 millimetres inside a border. Nothing printed in them.

The proportions are the point. A cell of this shape takes a whole statement — "7 × 8 = 56" — which a square cell of the same area does not.

Writing the whole thing out

This sheet is for the longhand method: the full number sentence, written repeatedly, rather than an answer dropped into a square.

It is slower, and that is the argument for it. Writing "6 × 4 = 24" engages the language of the fact as well as the number, and a child who has only ever written answers into a grid can be fluent at filling grids and lost when the same fact appears in a sentence.

Saying it aloud

Have them read each line as they write it. The multisensory version — see it, say it, write it — is markedly more effective than any one of the three, and this format is the one that supports all three at once.

It is also the format that suits chanting, which is unfashionable and works.

One table a column

The natural way to use the sheet: head each column with a table and write it down the page.

Then vary it. Write the sixes down one column in order, and down the next column in a jumbled order, and the difference in speed between the two is a direct measure of whether the facts are recalled or counted. A child fluent on the ordered column and slow on the jumbled one is counting on, and knowing that changes what you practise next.

Also good for

Number bonds written out in full. Division facts as the inverse — 56 ÷ 8 = 7 written directly under 7 × 8 = 56, which is the clearest way to show a pupil that they already know their division facts.

Spellings, in the same way: word, meaning, sentence, one per row.

Related

For a square grid to build a full multiplication square on, the blank multiplication grid. For generated practice with an answer key, the mixed tables generator.