Numberblocks' Five Times Table Song: maths that actually sticks

A four-minute earworm that teaches the five times table properly. Bright, bouncy, and built for Key Stage 1 brains.

Piko approved · checked and scored

Four minutes of Numberblocks doing what Numberblocks does best: turning a times table into a song catchy enough that your child ends up reciting it at the dinner table, on purpose this time. It's bright, bouncy and openly energising rather than calming, so use it to make maths fun, not to wind down before bed. Perfect for Key Stage 1 numeracy, past its sell-by date once a child decides CBeebies is "for babies".

At a glance

Age fit

5-7

sweet spot for KS1 times tables

Pacing

4.2s avg shot

brisk but not chaotic

Sensory intensity

Medium

loud music and bright colours, no epilepsy risk

Energy effect

Energising ↑

a sing-along, not a wind-down

Presenter

None

animated characters, sung not narrated

Brain-rot risk

Low

proper CBeebies production, natural song structure

Will it actually calm them down?

Wound-up → Settled (Yellow Zone → Green)60/100

Flat & tired → Gently lifted (Blue Zone → Green)90/100

Meltdown recovery (Red Zone → Green)20/100

Skip on Windy days, this adds bounce rather than settling a fizzy childBrilliant on flat, grey days, one of the strongest lifts in this batchNot for meltdown recovery, too upbeat for that moment

Scores measure how reliably this video moves a child toward a settled, regulated state. In the Piko app, kids tell us their weather and we do the matching automatically.

Which kids will love it?

Investigators 82early-years number lovers, ages 5-7

Entertainers 78sing-along performers, ages 5-7

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Why it works

Numberblocks does its usual trick here: characters that are literally made of the number they represent, singing their way through the five times table rather than reciting it. Our review scores it a suggestion-based, medium instructional level with no demand language, which is a fancy way of saying it teaches by inviting a child to join in, not by drilling them. Safety comes out at a full 100, which tracks with CBeebies' production standards.

Worth being upfront that this is energising, not calming, and our numbers back that up: 90 out of 100 for lifting a flat or tired child, but only 60 for settling a genuinely wound-up one, and our review explicitly flags it as a poor fit for quiet time or winding down. That's not a flaw, it's a sing-along built to be sung along to.

Where it earns its keep is early years numeracy: this is proper Key Stage 1 times-table reinforcement wrapped in four minutes of bounce. The one honest ceiling is age. Our review notes that children over 8 tend to find CBeebies branding babyish, so the sweet spot is squarely the age group still learning to say "five, ten, fifteen, twenty" out loud.

When to reach for it

Times tables homework, minus the tears. A song does the memorising work a worksheet can't.
The re-energise slot before an activity. Scores 90/100 for lifting a flat, tired child back into the room.
Car journeys and kitchen dancing. Made to be sung along to, not just watched.
Not for the wind-down slot. Energising by design, our review flags it as a poor fit for quiet time. Save bedtime for something quieter.