Factor Pairs Task Box

About this resource

EVERYTHING INSIDE — 22 pages, 150 type-in fields

• 18 factor pair cards across 3 levels (6 cards each). Every card shows one whole number, large, with "? × ? = the number" under it, and a set of pair tiles such as 3 × 8. Exactly one tile on every card multiplies to the number; the child marks it. Card numbers run from 12 to 63, and no number is used twice
• Every card twice: tinted tiles for a laminated classroom box, and black-on-white tiles for the photocopier. Every numeral is plain printed text in both sets, so there is no picture to misread
• A factor pairs reference page (color and ink-saver): eight numbers, each with every way to write it as two whole numbers multiplied, and a dot array of the pair closest to square. None of the eight is a card number, so the page teaches the idea without handing over an answer
• An answer key listing every card by level, with its number and every pair on it, the right one in bold
• A task box data sheet (16 rows: date, level, cards used, cards correct, cards given, percent, help given, initials)
• A percent graph, 14 sessions across, with a level box under each session
• A filled example: an invented student, 8 sessions, every percent re-counted from its own row
• A family practice page with six of the same cards, cut apart as one 3 x 2 grid
• A phrase bank: spoken lines for running the box and written starters for the note afterward, 24 lines in 6 groups
• Start Here, a contents page with page thumbnails, and a "what's next" back page

Three Levels, And The Difficulty Is How Close The Wrong Pairs Land

• Level 1: 6 cards, 2 pairs each. The wrong pair multiplies to a number at least 12 away from the card number, so a quick multiply rules it out.
• Level 2: 6 cards, 3 pairs each. One wrong pair lands 1 to 8 away from the card number, the other at least 12 away.
• Level 3: 6 cards, 4 pairs each, in two rows. One wrong pair lands 1 or 2 away, one 3 to 8 away, one at least 12 away. Only multiplying every tile separates them.

On 6 of the 18 cards the right pair is written with the larger number first (8 × 5), because 8 × 5 and 5 × 8 are the same pair; no card ever shows the same pair twice in either order. Pairs on a card are listed from smallest product to largest, so the right tile moves around from card to card. A dot code in the corner marks the level, so a mixed-up box sorts itself back together.

PLAIN NUMERALS, ON PURPOSE. Every number and every pair is printed text, drawn the same way in the color set and the ink-saver set. The cards use whole numbers 2 through 9 as factors, so the box fits students who are working with the times tables up to 9.

What This Is, And What It Is Not

It is a fillable PDF: type into the data sheet, the graph header, the family page and the example-style notes, or print and use a pen. The card pages and reference page print on cardstock or plain paper and cut along dashed lines. It works offline with no account or subscription. It is NOT an editable online slideshow or word-processor document, and it is not a test of anything.

It is not a multiplication or factoring curriculum: it carries no lesson sequence, no prompt order, no fading schedule and no mastery rule, and it does not decide what a percent means for a student or when to move up a level. The goal line and the criterion field are blanks for your district's own wording and your team's own number. It measures one thing: cards with the matching factor pair marked.

Who This Is For

Special education teachers and paraprofessionals running independent work stations or task box rotations with students who are working on factors and multiplication facts, case managers who need that practice to show up as data, and the families who get the practice page sent home.

More In The Collection

This is one set in the Task Box Collection; more sort, counting and math boxes are being added regularly, all on the same cards-plus-data shape.