Equal groups
Helps when multiplication is new: it shows what the two numbers mean.
Step 1Make 3 groups with 4 in each group. That is 3 rows of 4.
Step 2Add the groups: 4 + 4 + 4 = 12.
- 4 + 4 + 4 = 12
Step 3So 3 × 4 = 12.
Step 1 of 3
3.OA.1 — Interpreting Products of Whole Numbers
Practice multiplying whole numbers by thinking about equal groups. Each problem helps you understand that multiplication means combining groups of equal size to find a total.
Download
Three different problem sets — same skill, same layout, fresh numbers.
Preview — Set A
Solve each multiplication problem and write the product on the line.
TIMED DRILLTime: ______ min ______ secScore: ______ / 20
- 1.3 × 4 =
- 2.5 × 7 =
- 3.2 × 6 =
- 4.4 × 8 =
- 5.6 × 3 =
- 6.7 × 5 =
- 7.9 × 2 =
- 8.1 × 8 =
- 9.6 × 6 =
- 10.4 × 9 =
- 11.3 × 7 =
- 12.8 × 5 =
- 13.10 × 4 =
- 14.7 × 7 =
- 15.5 × 9 =
- 16.2 × 10 =
- 17.8 × 3 =
- 18.6 × 9 =
- 19.10 × 7 =
- 20.4 × 6 =
Other ways to solve this
Using 3 × 4 from this sheet (Set A, problem 1). Each method below reaches the same answer, 12, by a different route; pick the one that makes the most sense to you.
Skip counting
Helps with the times tables: say the multiples in order and stop at the right one.
Step 1Count by 4s, 3 times.
- 4, 8, 12
Step 2The 3rd number you say is 12.
Step 3So 3 × 4 = 12.
Step 1 of 3
What this worksheet covers
This is a 20-problem timed drill for grade 3 multiplication, printed in black and white with the key on page two. What makes this set particular: the numbers run as high as 10. Problems 7 and 14, for instance, are "9 × 2" and "7 × 7". It is written against Common Core 3.OA.1 — Operations & Algebraic Thinking, grade 3.
Skills practiced
The grade 3 multiplication sequence covers multiplication facts to 10 × 10 and 12 × 12, and multiplying by multiples of ten; this page sits inside it. What a student is asked to do here is interpreting Products of Whole Numbers. Concretely, the sheet tests whether a student can recall the multiplication facts quickly and accurately, without counting up to them. Fourteen different answers appear across the twenty problems, so a student cannot copy one result down the page.
About the timed drill format
The timer box at the top has room for minutes, seconds and a score out of 20; a realistic target for a page like this, where problem 7, "9 × 2" is a typical item, is two to three minutes. The times tables are the one set of facts that must be automatic, and a timed page is how you find out whether they are.
Set A, Set B and Set C
Set A is the original sheet; Sets B and C redraw each problem with the same shape and recomputed answers. Where Set A's problem 11 is "3 × 7", Set B's is "4 × 2".
How to use this worksheet
Work the twenty problems straight through, then check against the key together rather than handing it back marked; asking a grade 3 student to find their own multiplication error teaches more than seeing it circled. Mark the twenty problems the same day using the key — an error caught immediately is a correction, and one caught next week is a habit.
The full guide to teaching multiplicationTeaching multiplication from equal groups to integer exponents: the grade 2–8 progression, times-table strategies, and the errors that stall students.Other grade 3 multiplication formats
The same skill in the other formats available at this grade.
- Drill — Grade 3 Multiplication Practice, 20 problems
- Missing Number — Finding the Unknown in Multiplication & Division Equations, 22 problems
- Mixed Review — Multiplying by Multiples of 10 — Grade 3 Practice, 20 problems
- Word Problems — 3.OA.3 — Multiplication & Division Word Problems, 22 problems
- Vertical Format — Grade 3 Multiplication Vertical Format, 20 problems
A step either side
The same format one grade down and one grade up — the easier sheet is often the faster fix when this one is not landing.
- Grade 2 Multiplication Timed Drill — grade 2, 60 problems
- Grade 4 Multiplication Timed Drill — grade 4, 72 problems
Timed Drill sheets in other grade 3 topics
Print as many copies of this grade 3 multiplication timed drill as you need; Sets A, B and C and their keys are six separate PDFs, all free.