Minecraft Multiplication Practice

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Are you looking for ways to convince your children to practice their multiplication facts? There are many places to get minecraft flashcards with random minecraft pictures and random multiplication facts, but I wanted a way in which to give my seven year old more practice with the multiplication that is integral to minecraft itself. I decided to work on just the multiples of four and six and I devised both some instructions for him to work through on the computer and a set of cards to play with at the kitchen table.

Download the cards here: minecraftmemorymatchcards

The Multiplication Practice Cards

The sets are as follows:

  • set for multiples of four – shown through the woodplanks in multiples of four plus the logs which can be used to craft them.
  • set for multiples of six – shown through the woodplanks in multiples of six plus the stairs which can be crafted from them.

The cards can be used for a memory match game. The basic memory match game involves laying cards facedown on the table and flipping them up. Each player flips up two cards. If the contents of one card could be used to create the contents of the other card, then they match and that player gets to keep them both and take another turn. If they do not match the player puts them back where they are and the other player gets to take a turn.


1. Use just the wood planks cards for both multiples of four and six. Shuffle them together and place them facedown on the table. One player must pick up all the multiples of four in order from lowest to highest, the other player must pick up all the multiples of six in order. Each person takes a turn flipping up just one single card. If it is the card that player needs next, the player gets to keep the card and take another turn. If it is not the right card the other player takes his or her turn.

2. For minecraft experts: Play a guessing game. Lay a handful of the cards out face up. On each player’s turn that player thinks up a clue about which card he or she has chosen and the other players have to guess which card it is. For example: “If I had this in my inventory I could build a boat and still have one log plank left over” or “With this amount of planks I could build three chests.”

Before using the cards, I recommend doing some creative exploration. Share the following instructions with your child.

Start with an empty inventory, except for 16 logs. You will also need a crafting table and a chest. Place these. Use a crafting table to turn your logs into wooden planks. How many wooden planks do you have?

Open up a chest. Place your wooden planks in one stack. Use the left-mouse button to split the stack in half. Now you have two stacks of 32 wood planks. Split one of those stacks in half again. How many are in each of these stacks?

Splitting a Stack of 64 wood blocks into half, over and over again.

Keep splitting stacks until all your wood planks are in stacks of four. How many stacks of four do you have?

Grab a sheet of paper and write a multiplication equation that describes what you have in your chest.

Now in your inventory start stacking your wooden planks. Count out loud by fours as you add the stacks together. 4, 8, 12, 16….

Split the planks all into stacks of four again. Now try arranging the 64 wood planks in stacks of twelve? What is the easiest way to go from stacks of four to stacks of twelve? (Can you stalk three stacks of four together?) Can you arrange the 64 wood planks in stacks of twelve or are there planks left over? In other words, is 64 divisible by 12?

Can you arrange the 64 wood planks in stacks of eight? Is 64 divisible by eight?

Next step: Stairs.

Stairs are crafted using six wood planks. Another way to think of this is that every set of six wood planks can equal one batch of stairs. (They are crafted in batches of four, but that doesn’t matter. At the moment we can think of them just as batches.) Given a number of wood planks, how many batches of stairs can one craft?

How many with 12 wood planks?
How many with 30 wood planks?

Minecraft Multiplication Practice

Stairs use six wood planks, but wood planks are created in groups of four. If a person did not care how many stairs he built but absolutely did not want any wood planks left over, how many logs should he use? How many stairs will the person end up with?


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