My Thoughts on Math

This will be a new weekly post that students will repond to in class. I will give them a prompt to reply to regarding something in math they should reflect on.  I told students that I would pick only ONE out of both my math classes.....but it was too hard. I had so many great thinkers! So, I picked one from each class.

The prompt: You know several ways to multiply multi-digit multiplication problems.  Which method is your favorite? Why?

Erin C.
I like to break apart because you only have to do half of the problem at a time and then add it together.  So you for example could be doing 24x37.  You could break apart 24 into 20 and 4.  And you can break apart 37 into 30 and 7.  Now you do 20x30 (600) and 20x7 (140).  Then 4x30 (120) and 4x7 (28).  Add the partial products together and you get the total product.  24x37=888

Michael N.
My favorite method is the standard algorithm.  The reason why I like it is because it makes me work faster.  Like 94x4, you just multiply 4x2=8 and 4x9=36 and it will be 368.  But expanded algorithm takes longer like 13x2.  First you multiply 3x2=6 and 10x2=20.  Then you add 20+6=26.  It makes you have less time to do your work.

I look forward to sharing the students' thoughts on math with you each week!

Two of a Kind

Students have been working on multiplying 2-digit by 2-digit numbers.  They have used many of the strategies we have practiced to help them find the products.  One key strategy we practiced is breaking the number apart into smaller numbers. 

The Problem: A theater has 14 rows of seats with 23 seats in each row.  How many total seats are in the theater?

We used an array first to show our problem and then we broke the array into smaller arrays to find partial products.  The students did really well! Below are two examples of this practice.

All Wrapped Up!

I had a few requests to post a picture of our class pumpkin for the Fall Festival......here he is!