Multiplication is one of my VERY favorite math units. I feel like I say that about everything other than regrouping, ha! Pretty much as long as I’m not teaching regrouping I’m in heaven! I wanted to share a couple of new multiplication activities with you!
I realize that not everyone can have fun with food in the classroom. I’m sorry about that! For this activity you will need Oreos and M&Ms! The Oreos will serve as your groups. The M&Ms will be your objects in each group.
Since I was introducing multiplication, I gave everyone the same amount of Oreos. I didn’t want the confusion to begin on day one! Then I gave students a small cup of M&Ms. They decided how many to place on each Oreo. Oh, and we just peeled the other piece of the Oreo off and threw it away. The M&Ms don’t stick to the Oreo icing, but it does make a nice little platter 🙂
Before students could eat their math treat they had to write down ____ groups of ____, a repeated addition equation, and a multiplication equation. I walked through this step by step and kept it very basic since we are so early on in the unit. The students were SO excited to get such a special treat during math!
I’m going a little out of order here, but the next activity is actually how I introduced the concept of multiplication to the class. I did this right before students built their tasty treat. So, first we fed the bunnies, then we fed ourselves!
We sat in a large circle so that we could build multiplication situations together. I had students help me during each step of the process. First, a student rolled a di. This number told them how many rabbits (or equal groups) we needed to put out. Another student rolled a different di. This number told them how many carrots to feed each rabbit. We talked about equal groups and repeated addition. Another student then helped us write our repeated addition equation. I laminated everything so that we could quickly clean off and play several times!
There is a recording sheet that students can use. We just worked together, so we didn’t use pencil and paper today!
We continued creating new multiplication situations. The students took turns completing each step of our little process!
Once they were ready, I also introduced the multiplication equation to match our model.
One Response
Amy, this is great! Incorporating food to anything we teach makes kids get excited. Isn't that what learning is all about?