The Best Of Times

This book is a very informative math book that teaches the concepts of multiplication. I really love the idea of teaching children the principal of multiplication and not just to memorize. Some of the rhyming made the concepts a little confusing to me so I had to read it over. Otherwise I really loved the book.

The Best of Times is a great book to help students learn their multiplcation facts. Each number has a rhyme that makes it easy and fun to remember. There is a challenge on each page, with the answers at the end of the book. Also at the end of the book, is a multiplication table for each number. The book goes up to number ten. I would read this to my students and also have it available to them whenever they needed help. I like that the illustrations add to the fun vibe of the book. The characters are all animals and they are doing human things. Overall this is just a fun book that implements math in an engaging way.

This is the book math educators have been looking for. Although I am a big fan of the traditional methods of teaching and learning multiplication, this is the book that will get readers to explore the deeper meaning of multiplication. Is 7*5 the same as 5*5 plus 2*5? Yes it is.

A class of math students could benefit from taking Gary Tang’s strategies of breaking up multiplication and create their own strategies. For example, 7*5 is also 1*5 plus 6*5. Students can work the problems out on paper to show that they are equivalent. I also like the idea of students creating their own rhymes like Tang does.

To multiply three, as you can see, is two and one times what you see!

Tang makes the introduction to multiplication to 10 entertaining with his use of rhyme in this informational text. Rather than just throwing facts at you he also gives you strategies to help you remember how to solve with larger numbers. For example, when multiplying eight you "simply double but once more". These strategies are helpful because if a child knows how to double they can use that knowledge to solve problems with larger numbers.

The Best of Times by Greg Tang is a book on multiplying. It takes you all the way from 1 to 10. This book gives a rhyming sentence for each times table. This is a fun and easy way to get your kids engaged and to help teach their times tables. The book has pictures that go along with the text to help better understand how to multiply.

The Best of Times is a book that includes short rhymes, one to a page, that tell students how to multiply by numbers one through twelve. As the book precedes students observe the wide variety of animals that Tang uses to show them that multiplication is more than memorization!

I would recommend this book to students in grades second and third. The author's use of visual representations allows readers to not only see multiplication equations but to also see their answers presented in a novel way - through street signs, dancing and fruit! At the bottom of every page there is a Challenge question that asks students to use the poem and illustrations to answer a new question that pertains to multiplication by that specific number. This allows show more students to continuously practice their multiplication of both small and large numbers. While it focuses solely on multiplication it teaches it through authentic experiences - such as the use of money or playing cards - so students can see the importance of knowing their times tables for everyday life. Manipulatives can also be paired with this book - students could use actual playing cards or coins - to follow along with the books poems and problems in the classroom or at home. Also, at the end of the book it includes miniature "practice tables" for students to reference and check their answers from earlier in the book. These tables could also be used to review times tables on a weekly basis because they include not only multiplying by 1-12 but also larger two digit numbers (such as 34) as well! show less

The Best of Times, written by Greg Tang and illustrated by Harry Briggs, is an informational picture book that explains multiplication strategies to young readers. The multiplication strategies explained throughout this book include: multiplicative property of zero, the multiplicative identity property, and other strategies for multiplying numbers up to 10.
The author does a wonderful job of explaining each mathematical concept to the reader. Each page is themed according to an animal, and the text is presented through rhyming phrases. The illustrations are vibrant and full of detail, while also providing a visual representation for each mathematical concept being presented.