Printable Multiplication Table

Grab your free Printable Multiplication Table here before beginning this lesson on multiplying by ones.

When learning multiplication tables, the factors of one and zero should be your student's favorite!   They're so easy!

You may need to show the concept visually to your child.  When beginning to teach multiplication, practical aids visualizing the concept can be very helpful.  Explain that any number multiplied by one equals that same number.

A great visual lesson for any student learning the first basic steps of multiplication would be to set out fruit (such as bananas) and a plate.

Place one or more bananas on the plate and ask the student if you took the number of bananas and multiplied it by the number of plates - how many bananas would you have?

Of course - the answer would always be the number of bananas that are on ONE plate.    You can add more fruit to the plate - but you will never increase unless you add more bananas on more than one plate to the equation.

You write out the equation for the student the first time.  Then play around with any combination of different items on a plate.  

The child begins to realize quickly that no matter how many pieces of fruit, the factor of one plate will always still equal the number of pieces you started with.

Use the photo below to show them how the number only increases if you increase the second product, in this case, the number of plates.

Learning the  tables with such practical, visual object lessons helps the child to make a connection between numbers on a page with visual concepts that they can see and relate to.

Now it should be easy for a child to know that:

1 X 1 = 1

2 X 1 = 2

3 X 1 = 3

Printable Multiplication Table Worksheets

Here are a few worksheets that you can use to practice multiplying by one with your child.  The first two worksheets are simple multiplication problems using numbers.

The third paper presents the material much as we did in the object lesson above.  Your child may respond better to one method over the other.

Click the pictures to download.

To learn the rest of the multiplication table and facts, see the lessons below.  You'll find timed tests, lessons on factors vs. products, and a bunch of worksheets covering multiplication problems.