How to read it

Find one number along the top and the other down the side. Where the row and the column meet is the answer: go along to 7 and down to 8 and you land on 56, because 7 × 8 = 56.

Patterns worth spotting

• Every row is a times table. The 6 row reads 6, 12, 18, 24 and on to 72.
• It's the same on both sides of the diagonal. 7 × 8 and 8 × 7 are both 56, so there are only half as many facts to learn as there are squares.
• The diagonal is the square numbers: 1, 4, 9, 16, 25 and on to 144. Tick the box above to light them up.
• The 2, 4 and 8 rows are doubles of each other, and so are the 3, 6 and 12 rows.

How many facts are there really?

So a child who knows their 2s, 5s and 10s from Year 2 has far less left to learn than the grid suggests. The 36 that are left are all in the 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11 and 12 times tables, and those are the ones worth practising.

Three games to play with it

1. Cover up. Tick "Hide the answers", then point to a square and ask for the answer before tapping to check. Or print the square and cover a square with a coin.
2. Fill the blank one. Print the blank square and fill in one table at a time. Start with the ones your child knows, and watch how few gaps are left.
3. Find them all. How many times does 24 appear? (Six times: 2 × 12, 3 × 8 and 4 × 6, and each of those the other way round.) Try 36 and 48 next.

When the square starts to feel easy, try a times tables quiz, or the timed practice for the Year 4 check.