How do you get second graders to work harder than they ever have before in math? Just mention the word “multiplication” and suddenly the light bulbs come on! Who knew?
So apparently, multiplication is code for MAJOR coming of age in which 2nd graders will suddenly catch on faster than they have to nearly a YEAR’S worth of addition and subtraction practice. I was seriously impressed with my kiddos!
So how exactly did I teach my sweet seconds to understand the CONCEPT (our time with multiplication was NOT for the purposed of rote memorization…we were strictly focusing on conceptual understanding) of multiplication? I planned to spend 2 weeks on multiplication. Like we start pretty much any new concept, I started with what my students already knew…skip counting!
Day 1 – Skip Counting
- Why is skip counting helpful
- What are some real-like things that can be skip counted (my students came up with eyes, nostrils, packs of markers, shoes, fingers, hands {body parts lend themselves well to this}, feet, legs, toes, pencils, dog legs, and lots more)
- We practiced skip counting by identifying the rule, and then giving 4 numbers that follow the rule
Day 2 – Skip Counting and Equal Groups
- We continued to practice skip counting, but extended our conversation into recognizing that when we skip count, we had equal groups of whatever we were skip counting.
- My kiddos practiced skip counting with partners – they would take turns thinking of a rule, or showing skip counting and then their partner would have to show the missing info
Love that based on student partnerships, the practice is differentiated. The group above worked in the thousand’s, while other groups worked with smaller numbers.
- We used what we knew about skip counting, and our discussion about equal groups to model repeated addition.
- There was LOTS of guided practice. It took a few times to catch on, but man, once they caught on…there was no stopping!
I like to use my smart board to display our guided practice problems. And, the kiddos loved the equal group pictures I used. We’re easily entertained 🙂 Here was my method for questioning:
- How many groups are there? Circle the groups.
- How many in each group? Count the objects in each group.
- How can we use repeated addition to show the total? 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 = 8
- How can we write a multiplication sentence to match the repeated addition sentence? 4 (groups) x 2 (in each group) = 8
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