Multiplication is here!

Ever since my third graders walked into my classroom in August, they have been asking, "When are we going to start multiplication?" That is the ever nagging question of third graders... let me tell you. We had lots and lots to learn before we got to this ever so important skill and I didn't know how to start teaching it. I slowly got the courage to ask for HELP! Yes-I need lots and lots and lots of help this year - I'm learning and growing so much this year.

Through my search for help - I found this book:

I am basically doing whatever this book says to do because guess what... I have no idea what I'm doing & we don't have a math curriculum to follow - my full trust is in this book (while throwing in my last minute ideas of course)!

So, here is some of the things we've done so far!

We started off by exploring a multiplication word problem together. I read one and went over it together. 

Then, I gave them two multiplication word problems to do on their own. A few minutes later they came back to the rug and we discussed how we found the solution.

After this we began to explore equal groups!!

 I LOVE having kids explore and sometimes I may go overboard but I think it's important. They get to talk and really build understanding of the concept.

Students were given 5 fish tanks and cards with numbers 1-10.

They pulled two cards - The card with a fish tank on it told them the number of groups they needed. The second card gave them a number that they needed to divide equally.

Students used this to create a multiplication problem.

On their recording form I also asked them to show me their grouping with repeated addition and actually draw the group.

After we completed our recording forms - we shared our strategies with partners and a few more as a whole group!

You can grab the materials I used for this lesson here. (freebie)

Students took this work home and the next day we were introduced to arrays... that'll be a post for tomorrow! :)