Heidi Keiper

Students in Mrs. Keiper’s third grade class enjoy practicing their multiplication math facts. What?! Is that a typo? No, they really do get into learning their facts when they get to use their ipads and are working online.  Students use their competitive drive to see if they are quicker than their peers. Not quick, but still know the correct answer? Great, you get to win at your game also. Students have been using two different online sites to practice their multiplication facts.  One is Kahoot! and the other one is multiplication.com. 

Kahoot! is an online game that teachers create before the students play. Teachers are able to choose the questions and mark the correct answers.  The students then sign in with a game pin to Kahoot! to begin play. They always get to choose a fun “fake” name so that no one knows who is who while we are playing.  As the students answer the questions, they get real time feedback on how quickly they answered the question and if it was correct.  Mrs. Keiper takes the time to talk about the answer and the top 5 players after each question. Kahoot! also gives a shout out to those who have a streak of correct answers, just went up a few places, and to keep working hard. Students know how well they are doing as they play, and what place they are in.  They get feedback as to whether or not they answered correctly immediately after submitting their answer. The students only have 30 seconds to answer, but most answer within 15.  After the game is done, the podium is shown and students get their picture taken to be shared with parents and a sucker to have as a treat. Students finishing fourth and fifth get a sticker.  After the game, the teacher can look at who answered what question correctly and the time it took them to answer the question.  

Multiplication.com is an online site that allows students to play fun arcade time games but in order to continue the game, they must answer multiplication facts correctly. This one is not timed and works only on their recall, not speed.  One game students love to play is Granny Derby as they get to dress up Granny and her wheelchair and race others on the game by answering multiplication facts. Students can also do other racing games, flip games, and even flashcards that continue to review unless you answer them in a timely fashion.  Both of these games have really increased the amount of practice students are willing to do in order to get better at their facts. Multiplication.com can also be used for addition, subtraction, and division facts.