Big Idea 1: BIG IDEA 1Archived

This online game replicates the popular "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" format, using multiplication facts. It's a fun way for kids to practice multiplication!

Type: Educational Game

In this lesson, students will look at different carnival rides and will determine which ride will make the most profit by looking at factors such as number of tickets per ride, the cost per ticket, the length of the ride, the number of hours the ride is open and the cost to operate the ride. Students will need to use different operations in order to solve the tasks and will be required to do multi-steps.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will be able to use counters to create equal groups and write multiplication equations to represent these representations.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson students will model partitive division through the real-world activity of a pet store owner.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students work together to create arrays to represent given numbers.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is a hands-on lesson for introducing and practicing building arrays to create models that represent the distributive property of multiplication, and then using those arrays to draw models of the equations they represent.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this hands-on math exploration, students will use knowledge of estimation and multiplication to develop strategies for estimating how many seeds are in a medium-sized pumpkin.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson plan can be used to introduce the concept of multiplication to students through the use of literature. The story Amanda Bean's Amazing Dream is used to demonstrate the different ways to count items and how multiplication can make that process much faster.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson students will model multiplication using tree diagrams based in a real-world setting of a yogurt shop.

Type: Lesson Plan

PowerPoint presentation showing the relationship between arrays, multiplication, and repeated addition.

Type: Presentation/Slideshow

In this activity, the students demonstrate that numbers can be used to describe various quantities and relationships between quantities. Students gain experience adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing - building their understanding of how numbers are put together and taken apart. Students connect what they know to symbolic representation using number sentences.

Type: Teaching Idea

A measurement activity to give students experience with the grouping model of division and practice with rulers and tape measures.

Type: Teaching Idea

The lesson in narrative form gives students experience with the partitioning (sharing) model of division. "The context for the lesson is Sheila Bruce's book Everybody Wins! , Kane Press, 2001, in which Oscar, Emmy, Hugo, and Tony calculate how to share pizzas, baseball tickets, bubble gum, and more.

This narrative is from the introductory lesson in Maryann Wickett, Susan Ohanian, and Marilyn Burns's book, Teaching Arithmetic: Lessons for Introducing Division, Grades 3–4 (Math Solutions Publications,2002). This book is a revision of Math By All Means, Unit Division, Grades 3–4." (from Math Solutions Professional Development)

Type: Teaching Idea

List of five children's books with a multiplication focus (found on NCTM Illuminations site under "All About Multiplication").

Type: Text Resource

This four-lesson unit from NCTM's Illuminations has students explore several meaning and representations of multiplication (number line, equal sets, arrays, and balanced equations). Other multiplication topics covered include: the commutative (order) property, the results of multiplying by 1 and 0, and the inverse property. Students will write and solve multiplication story problems, and convert word problems into equations. A bibliography of children's literature with a focus on multiplication is provided, which can be integrated so that students can connect through literature.

Individual Lessons

• Students are shown how to generate products on a number line, highlighting the measurement aspect of addition. After some practice, they are asked to predict and then verify sums, and are also introduced to the commutative property.
• Lesson 2: Exploring Equal Sets
• Students explore the set model for multiplication. They find products using equal sets and present their results in a table. Next students apply their knowledge about multiplication in the creation of pictographs.
• Lesson 3: Modeling Multiplication With Streets and Avenues
• The array model of multiplication lays the foundation for the later study of area, and in this lesson, students will create arrays of the factors of 4 and 6 using toothpicks as representations of streets and avenues. The teacher will ask how many stoplights would be needed to fill each intersection. Zero and one will also be used as factors. Finally they will write their results as multiplication problems.
• Lesson 4: Balance Beam Discoveries
• The balance beam model of multiplication is examined in this lesson, along with another important relationship, the inverse of multiplication. This will lead naturally into the representation of multiplication facts as equations. Students will also practice multiplication facts by playing the Product Game.

Type: Unit/Lesson Sequence

This collection of 10 lessons uses children's literature to engage students in addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. The lesson arrangement is flexible and adaptable for any scope and sequence.

Type: Unit/Lesson Sequence

Using a virtual manipulative, children construct combinations of different colored shirts and pants to help Bobbie Bear, who is planning a vacation and wants to know how many different outfits he will be able to make from these combinations.

Type: Virtual Manipulative