Hold up a jar of candy and pose this question to your students: "If I were to give everyone in class two pieces of candy, how many pieces would I give out?" Whoever gets the answer correct first gets a piece of candy. If only one child is being taught, make up the number of students in the class: "If there are 17 students in the class and I give them each two pieces of candy, how many pieces of candy have I given out?" You can cover all multiplication tables this way. And you can change tables by having kids who are absent from the class itself.
Use pizza, a well-known food that's divided into equal sections, to help explain multiplication tables. 'With eight slices per large pizza and six slices per medium pizza, how many slices are in five large and three medium pizzas?" This is memorable, as pizza is a desired object most students know and can also understand the context of knowing the answer. The bigger question involves people at a party where these pizzas are served and the addition and subtraction of how many pieces people eat at the party, on average.
Use the website multiplication.com, which takes the use of food figuratively by including different foods in a variety of easy-to-play online video games. This allows kids to learn multiplication tables on their computers. "Carl's Cookie Capers" teaches you the important lesson that multiplication is only repeated actions as you cook batch after batch of cookies. "The Ants Go Marching" teaches simple, quick tricks to getting the multiplication answer by putting you on a timer and making you solve problems before the ants steal your food. These online games are effective tools for kids to learn multiplication tables with food, even though it's virtual.