In this activity, students practice using symbols to convey meaning while also building their multiplication facts. Players are given three emojis, each emoji is a symbol standing in for a number from 1 to 10. They must use the clues to decode the number hiding behind each symbol.

For example, in the instance 😄×😍=30 and 😍×😔=48, students can deduce that both statements contain the symbol 😍. They can "hunt" through the chart to identify a common row or column that contains both 30 and 48 to find both are multiples of 6. From there, they determine what times 6 leads to 30, finding 😄=5 and what times 6 leads to 48 to determine 😔=8.

For graduated fluency, allow students to begin with both "Show Table" and "Show Hints" turned on to use their detective skills with the multiplication grid. As they improve, challenge them to turn each off. They may continue to use skip counting or other strategies. In gaining exposure and playing with the chart, students are continuously building more and more familiarity without learning anything new.

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