With the kids home learning due to COVID-19 restrictions, I have a much better idea of what they are learning at the moment. This is the case especially with our youngest who I assist more on a daily basis (he is in year 6, the last year of primary school).
One of the things I noticed was that he was using a very time consuming process to work out long multiplication questions. I showed him the way I would work them out and he said the teacher had covered that method at school, but he didn’t really get it and with learning being at home so much, he had just kept working with the method he knew and felt comfortable with.
Teaching maths has changed a lot since I was in primary school, so I use Kahn Academy when I am assisting the kids to make sure I am not teaching them out of date methods . Khan Academy is an American non-profit educational organisation created in 2008 by Salman Khan, with the goal of creating a set of online tools that help educate students. They create short lessons in the form of videos and if you wish you can set up a profile for your child and they will take the information you enter and create some courses for your child to work through.
Or like I did in this example, you can search for the lesson you are after and work on that. (If you are reading this via email, click here to see the video below).
After we watched the video together which showed how to multiply multiple digits together, he wanted to do some more practice examples himself. Kahn Academy does have practice examples online, but I found that at this stage for our son, doing practice examples worked better if he could write them out in grid formation.
Free download long multiplication worksheets with grid format
I did a quick search on the internet but didn’t find any free printable sheets in grid format that didn’t make me sign up for something, so I made some for him! I created them using Google Sheets and made three sets of questions and answers.
I have found the grid formation for long multiplication helps the kids with keeping the place values in order and also helps with neatness as well. Often errors occur with long multiplication if the kids have the numbers in the wrong place or they misinterpret their messy workings out!
Each question sheet has 20 sums that are multiplying 3-digit numbers by 2-digit numbers. The answer sheets show the complete workings out for each sum, so if the child gets one wrong, you can easily see at which step/s they have an incorrect calculation. These sums are suitable for year 6 students or those that are starting their long multiplication journey.
You can download the free printable long multiplication sheets here:
If you would like to use my Google Sheet as a template and create more sums for your child, you can find it here:
Free printable long multiplication worksheets – multiplying 3-digit numbers by 2-digit numbers
To be able to edit a copy of this sheet and add your own sums, you need to make a copy of the sheet first. To do that you need to:
- Open the long multiplication worksheets spreadsheet
- Click on ‘file’, then ‘make a copy’
- Name the sheet and click on okay
- You will now be able to make whatever changes you like.
You will need a Google account to do this. If you don’t have a Google account already you will need to sign up for one. This doesn’t mean you have to get a Gmail address. Google accounts don’t have to use Gmail addresses. A Google account is simply a unified sign-in system that gives you access to Google products, including Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides. You can associate any email address with a Google account. To sign up for a Google Account go here.