Shade Primary School - Times Table Rockstars

Times Table Rockstars

Times Table Rockstars is a Maths app aimed at Year 2 to Year 8. It is really carefully built in a specific sequence of small steps to help children learn and then practise their times tables, building speed and accuracy as they play. It can be played online and there are also pen and paper activities which we use up to 5 times a week in school.

This page is to help parents understand the online app and how it is best used.

Times Table Rockstars can be played on a web page, accessed through a computer or laptop or as an app, downloaded from the Play or App store onto your tablet or smartphone. It is best played for five to fifteen minutes, five times per week.

In "Garage" - the programming on the website sets each child the next few facts that they need to learn.

They need to score 20 in 1 minute (or 60 in 3 minutes) to move from that level to the next level. You don't get to choose which tables to practise, it's a fixed journey through the facts. This is where your child should be playing if they are still learning their tables. Change the play time by clicking the dropdown arrow below the "Mode" icon in the centre of the menu bar - if they score 20 in a minute, this will reduce the time it takes to get to the next Gig.

The levels are deliberately and very carefully planned in small steps so that the child is learning and over-learning as they play. It works through the times table and division facts (including missing number questions) in a strict order of 10, 2, 5, 3, 4, 8, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12.

Mrs Sutcliffe's Top Tip!

The facts to be practised come up below the menu bar. It's worth stopping to look at them - even working out the answers - before your child clicks on "continue".

Every so often, the children will get a "Gig" icon where the Garage icon normally is. This is 100 mixed facts to check where they're at. If they do really well at this, they will automatically move to a new, appropriate level (they can jump many levels and it will depend on their errors as well as their correct answers).

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The "Studio" - is designed as an opportunity for the children to challenge themselves at all the facts to 12 x 12. Whilst they aren't at school - this is how they improve their Rock Status.

Mrs Sutcliffe's Top Tip!

If your child is still learning their tables - let them use a multiplication square to complete the studio game - it's NOT cheating, it's practising! They will only ht the best speeds once they know at least half of the table facts by heart.

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"Soundcheck" is TTRS's version of the Y4 government check-up - we don't use it in school, but if you want to investigate, it's 25 questions with 6 seconds to answer each one.

Here's a multiplication square if you want to print one off.

"Multiplayer" zones are more for fun.

In "Festival" they can play against anyone from anywhere in the world and it's a mix of all tables up to 12 x 12.It's totally anonymous - the other players only see each others' avatar names.

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"Arena" is just children from their own class or from their school house - who are online at that point. It can be a good idea to arrange to "meet up" to play against each other.

Mrs Sutcliffe's Top Tip!

A nice point here is that each child plays at their own level, so it's possible to win even if they're on 2, 5 and 10 but their opponent is on 6, 7 and 9.

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Finally, the "Rockslam" zone is where children play a challenge against their friends (or teachers!) from school. This is where to go to challenge Mrs Sutcliffe. It's all the facts up to 12 x 12 so best played once they've got at least half way through the levels (approximately Level 200+).

A word on Avatars and shopping.

Upgrading your avatar is one of the things that make TTRS fun. The best way to earn money is to play in the Garage. You earn 10 coins for every correct answer that way - more than in any other zone.

BUT - try not to spend all your time scrolling through trousers in the shop! If you're on TTRS for, say 15 minutes, then 12 of those should be playing and 3 shopping.

Lastly - if you can ignore the urge to spend every time, you can save up lots of coins for some of the really cool, expensive items.