Ava is now seven and this is the year she learns the multiplication tables at school. We already have the chart on the toilet door (which I think must be a universal trick), but the other day she came home with a ‘multiplication chatterbox’. You know, that paper folding game we played as a kid? So fun!

Ava’s teacher transformed the fortune teller game into a multiplication game. What a fun, simple but brilliant trick! (It immediately triggered a chatterbox hype amongst Ava and her friends. They’re suddenly everywhere!)

If you forget how to fold these little games, Ava shows you the ‘how to’ below. You start with a plain white A4 / letter-sized paper. (Or start with a square and skip step 2).

Step 1: fold a triangle. Make sharp folds!

Step 2: cut the extra bit of paper to create a square

Step 3: open paper and fold diagonally so you have a cross pattern on the paper.

Step 4: Fold the corners to the centre.

Step 5: turn over the paper and again, fold the corners to the centre.

Step 6: fold the paper in half one way, then the other way.

Step 7: fold back the corners

Done! Now we enter the questions. Ava is learning the multiplication table of 4 so we went with that one. There are only 8 spaces for the questions, but according to Ava we skip 1 x 4 and 10 x 4 because those are so easy anyway!

The answers are written within. Here’s to already studying the answers!

And now it’s time to play with your multiplication chatterbox. And learn!

So clever :). Do you have any tricks up your sleeve for teaching your kids the multiplication tables? (We previously shared making pretty multiplication flowers here and here, and the multiplication rap that Emilie mentions in her Tuesday Tips post about multiplications is so brilliant too!)

xxx Esther