Today we tried to really grasp the meaning of multiplication. It’s easy for students to learn a few of their multiplication facts, but it’s surprising how many have difficulty grasping what multiplication really means. They may know that 4 times 3 is 12, but they do not understand that this means that there are four groups of three and that this is the same as three groups of four. Lacking this understanding, they simply have no idea when to multiply instead of adding.
To help remedy this, we made arrays today. An array is a visual way to represent a multiplication fact. We used macaroni and glue and construction paper, and we had a pretty good time with it! You can see a picture of one of these below. It also helps students to grasp the commutative, or order property of multiplication. This way they can SEE that 4 x 5 and 5 x 4 are just different ways to state the same idea.
Homework: (1) Spelling. Test tomorrow! Study hard. (2) Science questions, page A 57. Please copy the question as well as answering. (3) Arrays, Math, page 121.
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