Year 3 is the year that children really begin to take off with multiplication. One of the key things is the understanding that multiplication is repeated addition. Also the multiplication sign is used and understood as meaning, 'lots of'. In oral work the terms multiple and product can be introduced. A key concept for children to understand is that multiplication can be done in any order, unlike division. Tables are continued, especially the twos, fives and tens, with threes, fours and sixes introduced. When learning a table it is important to say the number sentence and not just the list of answers: i.e.  2 times two is 4, three times two is 6  ( not just 2, 4, 6 - which is counting in twos). Several key mental strategies are used in Year 3, including: 1. The effect of multiplying a number by 10. Many children are told that all you have to do to multiply by ten is ‘add a nought’. This is disastrous! When they move on to multiplying decimals, for instance, adding a nought gives an incorrect answer.  ( 2.4 x 10 = 24, not 2.40) They should understand that the units digit moves one place to the left, into the tens column and a nought is placed in the empty units column. 2. Multiplying by 4 by doubling and doubling. This is a very effective mental strategy. Having a sound knowledge of the double of all numbers up to ten can speed up mental calculations enormously. 3. Inverse Finally there is re-enforcement of the relationship between multiplication and division, and how this can lead to other statements e.g. if 24 divided by 6 = 4 then 6 multiplied by 4 = 24 etc. Much of the work in Year 3 is re-enforcement of year 2 work, however, the more practice, the better. Concepts covered include: 1.  multiplying a single digit by 1, 10 or 100 2.  doubling multiples of 5: exactly as for year 2, but children should now be more confident. 3.  multiplying a two digit multiple of 10 by 2, 3, 4, 5 4.  multiply a two digit number by 2, 3, 4 or 5 Year 3 multiplication concepts