Space Bricks: A Times Tables Game with a Brick-Breaker Twist

Space Bricks is a brick-breaker game set among the stars. The player steers a paddle, bounces a ball and breaks bricks. Some bricks hold a times-table question, and the ball only breaks those after the player picks the right answer. Before starting, you choose which tables to practise, so a child working on the fives does not get ambushed by seven times eight.

It suits children of roughly 7 to 11 who already understand what multiplication means and are now building speed. The arcade part keeps their hands busy and their attention on the screen. The question bricks interrupt just often enough to make recall part of the game rather than a quiz bolted on top.

Fluency comes after understanding

There are two different things a child can have with times tables. Understanding is knowing that 4 × 6 means four groups of six, and being able to work it out with a drawing, counters or skip counting. Fluency is knowing the answer is 24 without working it out.

A speed game like this one builds fluency. It does not build understanding, and if a child does not yet understand, a speed game mostly teaches them to guess fast. So the order matters: arrays and skip counting first, this game second. A quick test is to ask, "What does 3 × 5 mean?" If the child can show it with three rows of five buttons, they are ready to practise speed. If not, spend a week on the hands-on part below first.

Which tables to choose, and in what order

Pick tables in the game in the order that makes each one easier than the last. A common path:

Stay on a stage until the answers come in about three seconds. Then add the next stage while keeping the earlier tables switched on, so they stay sharp.

Patterns that cut the work in half

• Turnarounds. 3 × 8 and 8 × 3 have the same answer. A child who knows that has far fewer facts to learn. Lay out 3 rows of 8 buttons, then turn the blanket a quarter turn: now it is 8 rows of 3, and nothing moved.
• Nines. In the nine times table, the tens digit goes up by one while the ones digit goes down by one: 09, 18, 27, 36, 45. The two digits always add to 9. Children love checking this.
• Doubles. Four times anything is double, double. 4 × 7: double 7 is 14, double 14 is 28.
• Fives from tens. 5 × 8 is half of 10 × 8, so half of 80, which is 40.

After stage 2, show a child the full 10 by 10 grid and colour in every fact they know, counting turnarounds. The remaining blank squares are usually far fewer than they feared.

Arrays and skip counting first

An array is a rectangle of objects in rows and columns. Buttons, dried beans, coins or cereal pieces all work.

A worked example for 6 × 4:

1. Lay out 6 rows of 4 buttons.
2. Skip count the rows: 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24.
3. Split the array with a pencil after the third row. Now it is 3 × 4 and 3 × 4: 12 and 12 make 24.
4. Turn it sideways: 4 rows of 6. Still 24.

Step 3 matters more than it looks. Splitting an array is how children work out a fact they have forgotten, and it is the same idea they will use later in long multiplication. A deeper walk-through of this approach sits in the Math at Home archive.

Playing together at home

Sit with the child for the first round and choose only one or two tables. When a question brick comes up, let them answer alone. If they get it wrong, the game moves on. Make a note on paper of the fact they missed, and after the round, build it with buttons together.

• Keep sessions to 10 or 15 minutes.
• Change the selected tables every few days so the game stays a little hard.
• Ask them to say the full fact aloud ("seven times six is forty-two"), not just the answer. Hearing the whole fact helps it stick.
• When a fact keeps slipping, give it a story. 7 × 8 = 56 is "five, six, seven, eight" in order: 56 = 7 × 8.

Making it easier or harder

Easier: choose only the 2s, 5s and 10s, and keep a printed skip-counting strip beside the screen for checking. Harder: choose mixed tables from stages 3 and 4, and before each question brick ask the child to predict which table is coming.

A paper version for class

This one works well as a station or a whole-class game, and it needs only paper.

Draw a wall of bricks on a sheet: 5 rows of 6 bricks. Write a times-table fact in about half of them (without answers), and leave the rest blank. Students work in pairs with one die.

1. Roll the die. Count that many bricks along the wall, starting from the bottom left and moving row by row.
2. Blank brick: colour it in, it is broken.
3. Question brick: answer it out loud. Your partner checks with a multiplication grid. Right answer, colour it. Wrong answer, the brick stays and you lose the turn.
4. The pair keeps going until the whole wall is broken or the timer ends.

A sample wall for stage 2 practice could include 3 × 4, 4 × 6, 3 × 7, 4 × 9, 3 × 3, 4 × 4, 3 × 8, 4 × 7, 3 × 6, 4 × 8, 3 × 9, 4 × 5, 3 × 5, 4 × 3 and 3 × 10. Students who finish early can design a wall for another pair, which means choosing which facts deserve a brick. More group setups like this live in the Learning Through Play archive.

What to watch for

• Guessing to keep the ball moving. If answers come instantly and are often wrong, pause the game and build two of the missed facts with buttons.
• Frustration at a single table. It is usually the sevens or eights. Switch back to an easier set for one round, then return.
• Counting on fingers in the game. That is understanding without fluency yet. It is a fine stage. More short practice, not more pressure, moves them past it.

Tonight, lay out 7 rows of 8 buttons and split it into 5 rows and 2 rows. Forty plus sixteen: 56. Then try the game with the eights switched on.