Growth Point 3
Multiplication and Division Growth Points activities
The tasks listed on the following pages are rich tasks from various sources that may be used with multi-level groups or students who are working at a particular level.
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3. Partial modelling multiplication and division (some objects perceived)
Solves multiplication and division problems where objects are not all modelled or perceived.
100 legs
100 legs
Materials: Animal cards, dice.
Activity: Students flip an animal card then roll the dice. They then say the corresponding number sentence (e.g. ‘I have 3 groups of 4 legs. I have 12 legs altogether’). The students then record this total. The students take turns and repeat the process, adding the total number of legs to the previous total. The first person to 100 legs wins.
Related key ideas: Equal groups.
What do you see?
What do you see?
Materials: A collection of dot-arrays, either on cards or digitally.
Activity: Show an array for three seconds. Ask, ‘What did you see? How do you know?’ Students draw what they ‘saw’ and then the teacher reveals the array so students can check. Teacher poses the problem, ‘I close my eyes and see an array of 16. Draw what you think I see’.
Related key ideas: Equal groups, properties of multiplication.
Chocolate box
Chocolate box
Materials: Materials: A variety of empty boxes, three brown Unifix cubes.
* It is helpful if the boxes are the correct depth to match one Unifix cube.
**Deeper boxes can be used if students are working with multiplying three numbers.
Activity: Show an empty box and the 3 brown cubes (which represent chocolates). Say ‘I went to my cupboard and found this box of chocolate, but there were only 3 left. Can you work out how many have already been eaten?’. Ask students to investigate a range of boxes provided. ‘What did you notice about the boxes?’ ‘Did any hold the same amount?’ ‘Did they also look the same?’ Challenge the students to create their own box that can hold 12 chocolates.
Related key ideas: Equal groups, properties of multiplication.
Peek-a-boo
Peek-a-boo
Materials: Square tiles, a variety of flat shapes or splats.
Activity: Students make an array using square tiles then place one of the flat shapes in the centre of their array. Another student needs to work out how many tiles are hidden and explain how they worked it out.
Together the students remove the flat shape and check.
Related key ideas: Equal groups, properties of multiplication.
What might it look like?
What might it look like?
Materials: Square tiles, dice.
Activity: Students roll two dice and decide which number will be the number of tiles they use for horizontal rows and which will represent vertical rows.
Students then make the top and first vertical row of their array (e.g. ‘I roll a 4 and a 5, therefore I will place 4 tiles across and 5 down to create a ‘L’ shape’). In this example, note that only 8 counters are needed because the corner counter is shared between the rows.
Teacher poses, ‘Imagine this was a complete array. How many would there be altogether? How do you know?’.
Related key ideas: Equal groups, properties of multiplication.
One-minute division challenge
One-minute division challenge
Materials: A collection of items (e.g. counters, teddies, buttons), dice.
Activity: Set the timer for one minute. Students roll the dice during that time and collect the number of objects they roll each time. At the end of time, students count how many objects they have collected. Ask students to think about how they would arrange these collections into an array. ‘How many rows might you be able to create? How many in each row?’ Students record their predictions and then test them by arranging their items. Encourage students to find more than one solution.
Related key ideas: Equal groups, division with remainder.
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