Recently, I have been reading Visual Supports for People with Autism: A Guide for Parents and Professionals (Topics in Autism) and knew that I would need help teaching Lira how to multiply. I needed a way for her to visualize the multiplication problems, not just so she would get the correct product but so that she could understand what the purpose was.
I began searching for worksheets with visual supports but all I could find were basic facts sheets for drills. Maybe I looked in the wrong places or maybe I needed to create them myself.
I built the worksheets so that a child could see the correspondence between the factors in the equation. For instance, one popsicle has two sticks. Therefore, one times two equals two. Or, each mushroom has eight spots so if you have two mushrooms, two times eight is sixteen. I also encourage skip counting so a child can make the connections between patterns and multiplication.
Finally, the child can refer to the visual cues to complete the multiplication problems.
Lira loved it.
She danced because she understood what multiplying was and how to do it.
(Please note that Lira is only in the second grade and I aimed these printables at that age group. However, I believe they can be used for all ages, especially for those who are struggling to make the connections necessary to understand how multiplying works.)
I wanted to also make multiplication flash cards for remembering the facts but included the visual prompts from the worksheets as a reminder. The product is left blank so that these can be used easily for review.
For our family’s use of the cards, I laminated them and then punched a hole to keep the cards together with a binder ring.
If you wanted your child to do these as a self-guided activity, I recommend writing the answers on the back.
Free Multiplication Worksheets
Download the free printable here.
Free Multiplication Flash Cards
Download the free printable here.
Carmen says
Thank you so much! These will be great for my girls!
Penny says
I am so glad you can use them. They certainly worked well for us. 🙂
Erika says
I love the look of your flashcards! I have been teaching 4th grade for 12 years and part of what we teach students is the meaning of multiplication. For instance, 5 x 4 means 5 groups of 4. On the other hand, 4 x 5 means 4 groups of 5. You get the same product (20) but the pictures aren’t the same. Looking at the pictures you included (which I think is a great visual aid), they don’t represent the true meanings of the facts. I would love to use your cards but the pictures are accurately representing the facts.
Penny says
They work well for my child with Autism. She understands them perfectly. 🙂
Leigh says
I agree with Erika. I teach second grade, and although these worksheets and booklets are very cute, the images shown are not the true representation of the math facts, and would confuse my students if I used them in my classroom. Please considering revising them…as I would love to be able to use them in my classroom with my students!
Dee Johnson says
Erika and Leigh, if these don’t work for you maybe you should consider making your own. She put her time and energy into these for her kids and is offering them for free for everyone else. If you can’t use them, move on and find something else. And please don’t ask her to revise them for you. You might not have meant to sound rude, but that’s how it comes across.
Tabitha, I think these worksheets and cards are wonderful. I’m going to see how my kids like them. I’m sure they will be a hit! Thank you so much for the time and energy you put into these, and offering them for free is a blessing. <3
pam says
thank you for these… they are fantastic! I am following your blog now.. you do a great job!
Penny says
You are so welcome, Pam. Glad to have you with us. Thank you so much for the compliment. 🙂
Anne says
Thank you so much for these! I was looking for something to use with my daughter, who’s also in 2nd grade. These are perfect!
Penny says
I am very excited about how well they have worked for us and I am glad I can help you too. God bless!
Dianne says
Thank you so much for providing these! I plan on laminating the worksheets so my daughter can do them over and over again. We’re also working on a multiplication table lap book, so the flashcards are going in there. Hopefully this will make math a little more fun for my math hater.
Penny says
I hope so too! Math can be tedious so anything we can do to make it more fun is always a good thing. If I could recommend one thing… I would put the worksheets into page protectors instead of laminating them because it is cheaper. I do laminate the flashcards though. Thanks so much for swinging by. 🙂
Tara H says
Thanks so much for offering these! I’m looking forward to using them with my boys!
Penny says
No problem, Tara! I figure that if I have to do the work, I might as well share it to keep other busy parents from having to do the same. 🙂
Jill @ EHM says
This is perfect for my son! Thank you so much for taking the time not only to create these for your daughter but to share them with everyone. I just subscribed to follow your site and have pinned this item onto my Pinterest Board. Thanks so much!
Penny says
Thanks for the encouragement, Jill! I truly love being able to help others in such simple ways. It is my pleasure to serve. {BLUSH}
Dawn says
Thank you for sharing! I think this will really help my daughter. I really appreciate you offering this. You did a great job making them. I am excited to put them to use.
Penny says
Awesome, Dawn! I am so glad you like them. Please let me know if I can help more. 🙂
Dawn says
I really like these and I think that they will help my daughter tremendously. I was just wondering why it stops at 10 instead of 12. The multiplication tables that I have seen go all the way up to 12 x 12. I also wanted to know what you used to make them, so that I might could add the 2 extra facts to each page. Thank you so much for your hard work.
Penny says
I thought about that after the fact, Dawn. I think I will go back this weekend and add the others.
I built them in a Word Doc and then made it a PDF. To save you the trouble, I will get this post updated by Monday. Please check back with me. 🙂
Dawn says
Thank you so much. I didn’t want to put you through the trouble, you’ve already done so much in creating these. Thanks again!
Rachel says
What a wonderful gift! We are struggling with the multiplication facts {3rd grader} and I wanted something that would be great practice! Thank you so much.
Penny says
I truly hope they help you, Rachel. Just use lots of manipulatives. That really seems to work for us. I am posting on Wednesday some of the things we use. Hopefully, that will help.
Kristina says
Wow! Thank you so much for this awesome printable set! Just this week I talked with my son about regrouping/multiplication– so these will be great for when he is ready for this! Pinning for the future : )
Penny says
Wonderful! Thanks so much for pinning. 🙂
Deb Leapline says
Thanks so much Penny! Regular falshcards did not do the trick…hoping these will. Can’t wait to use them. God Bless You.
Penny says
I hope so too. The visual aspect really helped my daughter. Best wishes!
Wanda says
Thanks so much for sharing these! My granddaughter will be using these to help her with her multiplication.
Penny says
No problem, Wanda. I hope they are a huge help for her. 🙂
Kathy Jones says
Thank you so much. I am so far behind with materials due to our issues. We are in our first year of homeschooling. Kasey has Autism and he learns better hands on and independently. I have some ideas to help him and our other daughter 23 with spina bifida she is stuck mentally in the preteen years. She just down right my biggest time consumer. I get so frustrated. Seems she does stuff on purpose to push my buttons your know the opposite of what I say or want.
Kasey is smart and he pays attention when you think he is not. I worry he will hear us say he has Autism and he will question it right then. I have been trying to find a way to explain his Autism to him. I have no clue at what I am doing.
Penny says
Kathy ~ {{BIG HUGS}} to you. It is difficult to have children with special needs. Honestly, I used to question God about it all the time. I encourage you to find a support group in your area. Local hospitals are a good place to ask. There are also support groups available on Facebook. If you are interested, send me an email and I can tell you about the two I am involved with. tabitha(at)meetpenny(dot)com
Kristen says
I’ve got a second grader on the spectrum that is just starting to learn multiplication — this is perfect and timely! Thank you!
Penny says
I’m so glad you found them at just the right time, Kristen! I have a different type of visual for multiplication coming on Wednesday. I hope you check back.
OBHH says
I could reach out and hug you!!!! I need these!!!!!!! Thank you thank you thank you!!!!
Penny says
Oh, thank you for the hug. I am so glad you are pleased and pray they help. 🙂
Natalie says
Thank you for these – I am sure my daughter will love multiplication facts!
Penny says
I hope she enjoys these. The pictures are quite cute. Poor boys. No fun for them. LOL
Firdos Khan says
Thanks so much Penny! you were a blessing for us… our math hater will love this.. I read your blog and plan on following it now… I will be using all the links here and laminating the items to use and reuse with both my boys! Thanks again! Do you have something similar for the Money concept?
Penny says
I don’t have anything like that yet but think it is a great idea. My kindergartner is just starting to learn about money. I might need to put some thought into it. Thank you so much!
Ruth says
Thank you! I have pinned this for future use!
Penny says
Fabulous. I love being pinned! Thanks, Ruth.
Beth says
Penny, these are WONDERFUl!! I love how you made them visual!! I am deffinetly going to be using these! I featured it this week at TGIF – http://www.livinglifeintentionally.blogspot.com/2012/04/tgif-linky-party-24.html – Feel free to grab an I was featured button! Thanks for sharing your creativity with all of us!!
Happy Easter,
Beth =-)
Penny says
Thank you so much for the feature. I hope they help a lot of people.
Ronett says
These are fantastic! Do you have any with addition or subtraction! I love the simplicity of these worksheets! Looks like I’m gonna have to stock up on page protectors! LOL!
God bless!
Hilaire says
Thanks so much! These are great printables! I shared them via pinterest.
Shari Stremme says
I will be using your flash cards as soo as my child gets home from school. He is a visual learner and the times cards will be great for him. Thanks so much 🙂
Hana says
I was about to make the multiplication flash cards for my 10yrs old son with autism when I found these ones. How nice of you Penny!
Now, no need to wait weeks for me to finish the cards. We can start right away with yours. I still need to make my own, ones that I know better suit my son’s learning habbits and abilities.
Thank you so much,
Hana Awad
Penny says
That’s wonderful, Hana! So happy to be able to help.
Lauren says
Thank you so much, I am so glad I found this! I will be teaching an MD class next year and I think this will help my students tremendously! Thank you for your time and ideas.
Penny says
Wonderful, Lauren! I hope these help.
Mary says
Thanks so much for all your hard work! My boys will really enjoy this.
Penny says
Wonderful, Mary! I am so glad I can help.
Amy L says
TY!!! These are so fun and will help us so much! You’re blessing so many and I appreciate that.
Penny says
Thank you, Amy. I am happy to help. 🙂
Keri Lee Sereika says
Hi Penny,
Thank you so much for these! I have a little one who’s all of a sudden struggling with math saying he doesn’t like it and I truly believe it’s simply because we have introduced multiplication and it hasn’t “clicked” yet. While we don’t have the added trial of educating through the gauze that Autism casts on cognitive reasoning, I really believe that there are so many ways to learn and that my guy needs to “see how” everything works…. Having these worksheets gives him the visual cues that he needs and I thank you so much for sharing them.
K
Tracy says
Thanks… these are so great and cute!
Stephanie says
Thank you for all of your wonderful ideas!!! I was looking for multiplication facts for our “rings” and I found so much more! You have been a blessing to our family today:)
Jenny says
Hi, thanks for the beautiful printables! It’s really nice. 🙂 Just one question, why is the concept taught differently in the facts and worksheets? I would say the concept taught in the worsksheets is correct where e.g.8 times table: each mushroom has eight spots so if you have two mushrooms, 2×8=16 . The concept is there are 2 groups/sets of 8. So if there are 3 groups of 8, it’s 3×8=24 and so on. But 2 notes of $10 is different from 10 notes of $2 right, if you have to divide among 5 people, even though the result is the same:$20?
So I would say it’s better to remain consistent in the presentation, esp if you are using the same pictures to reinforce? Unless you just using numbers. Then we can say 3×8 and 8×3 has the same answer of 24.
Not sure if it makes sense… What do you think?
Penny says
When I made these, my daughter was learning that the values are the same even when the numbers are flipped. I don’t think I put a lot of thought into why I listed it that way. If I ever redo the printables, I will think about that. Thanks so much.
Landon Curtis says
They look fun. That is the biggest indicator that they will be effective.
Penny says
Thanks, Landon. 🙂
canoearoo says
Thank you for these. My daughter now finally understands multiplications
Amanda says
Thank you!
Sarah says
Thank you so much my daughter has been really struggling with her times table and these are amazing.
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vicki n says
Thanks so very much for these
Sarah says
Thank you so much for this wonderful resource.
Jada says
I love these! My son has struggled with multiplication I can’t wait to use these with him as they aren’t too ‘babyish’ for him. I have documented some sites I have used to help with his struggle, I hope you don’t mind that I have linked to your post.
Jeanine says
I have 2 deaf sons. Thank you . This will make it so much easier by using the visual clues. Thank you for sharing this.
Homestead Wishing says
I printed out all of these. Thank you so much! These are going to come in so handy with my 3 boys!
jean paul says
My children needed IRS 8829 several days ago and found an excellent service with a ton of fillable forms . If you are looking for IRS 8829 too , here’s
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.Liz says
This is what I was looking for! However, when I signed up and clicked on the link it keeps giving me an error message:
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All access to this object has been disabled
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is there another way I can download them? Thank you!
Becky Milstead says
I love these!!! I have been looking for something like this & can’t thank you enough.
Btw, you’re famous!! Happy Housewife shared the link to your post on fb. 😉
Penny says
LOL. Hardly famous. But thank you so much. I hope these will help you. Don’t miss the new printables for multiplying that I posted today. They are graphics organizers to show children WHY we multiply. 🙂
Evie Birch says
I am so excited to find these mini multiplication book. I am going to use them to make a multiplication lapbook with my student.
Penny says
Wonderful. Glad I could help. 🙂