"All right!" Tim said. "Just look here. First of all we have to practise counting by threes. That's not too hard, is it?"

"I suppose not," agreed Fred. "I can do that."

"We can all count together," Tim and Tam told him. "Off we go - Three, six, nine, twelve, fifteen, eighteen, twenty one, twenty four, twenty seven and thirty."

"All right," said Fred. "That wasn't too bad. I could do that."

"So now we write them out," Frog told him. They wrote the Threes.

1 x 3 = 3
2 x 3 = 6
3 x 3 = 9
4 x 3 = 12
5 x 3 = 15
6 x 3 = 18
7 x 3 = 21
8 x 3 = 24
9 x 3 = 27
10 x 3 = 30

Tim and Tam looked at them.

Fred and Frog looked at them.

"There isn't any pattern," Fred complained.

"It gets bigger by three every time," said Tim.

"That's because it's the THREE times table!" Frog and Tam yelled. "So of course it gets bigger by three."

"Oh, well," Fred said. I suppose I shall just have to learn it." He sat down in a desk and started saying the Three Times Table to himself.

"One lot of three is three, two lots of three is six and three lots of three is nine."

Frog joined in.

"Four threes are twelve, five threes are fifteen
and six threes are eighteen."

Tim and Tam kept going. They took turns.

"Seven threes are twenty one."

"Eight threes are twenty four."

"Nine threes are twenty seven."

Then they all shouted the last one.

"AND TEN THREES MAKE THIRTY!"

Everyone else in the classroom looked at them.

"Okay," said the teacher. "I just hope you know the rest."

"We do! We do!"

Do you know your Threes? Try counting first of all.

Then say the Three Times Table through. Then you can try these. Be careful. They are all jumbled up.

7 x 3 =
3 x 3 =
6 x 3 =
2 x 3 =
5 x 3 =
8 x 3 =
1 x 3 =
10 x 3 =
4 x 3 =
9 x 3 =

How did you get on? If you need some more practice here are some dogs to help you count.

1 x 3 =
2 x 3 =
3 x 3 =
4 x 3 =
5 x 3 =
6 x 3 =
7 x 3 =
8 x 3 =
9 x 3 =
10 x 3 =

Of course, when Tim and Tam and Fred and Frog had learned their Three Times Table, they also knew some of the others.

3 x 1 = 3
3 x 2 = 6
3 x 3 = 9
3 x 4 = 12
3 x 5 = 15
3 x 6 = 18
3 x 7 = 21
3 x 8 = 24
3 x 9 = 27
and 3 x 10 = 30

Was Fred right when he complained that there wasn't any pattern?

He didn't see a pattern, but if you keep counting by threes after 30 you might see a pattern. Here are the numerals for you:
3   6   9   12 15 18 21 24 27 30
33 36 39 42 45 58 51 54 57 60
63 66 69 72 75 78 81 84 87 90