Breaking Apart to Multiply

Students have been using the Break Apart strategy they learned with basic facts to help them multiply greater numbers.  We used place value blocks to show an array for 4x23. 

Then we broke the 23 apart into 20 and 3. We thought of 4x23 as (4x20) + (4x3). 

Then we must add each partial product 80+12, giving us 92 as our product of 4x23. Students have been using this strategy to help solve multi-digit multiplication products into the thousands!