Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Multiplication Property Games

By Shane F., Sean, and Matthew



In our multiplication unit we have been playing games to help us learn the properties of multiplication.

Order Property of Multiplication Game

A few weeks ago, Mrs. Yollis made two yellow factor cards, and she picked two people to be "factors". The "factors" chose a number from her box of digits.



Next, they hid their number under their yellow factor card.



When Mrs. Yollis yelled, "Name the product!" the two factors revealed the factors to the class.


The class wrote down the multiplication sentence with the correct product.


Students with the correct product could then be chosen to be part of the game.


We learned that if you switch the order of the factors, the product stays the same.

8 x 9 = 9 x 8


Grouping Property of Multiplication Game

Today, we learned to multiply three factors! Mrs. Yollis made another yellow factor card and a set of cardboard parentheses. We learned a new game for this property.

* * *

Three students were chosen to be the "factors". They hid a number under their factor card. One at a time the numbers were shown. When all three factors were revealed, Mrs. Yollis allowed one person to be the grouper. (An organizer, not the fish!)


That grouper came up and grouped two of the factors with the parentheses. The class wrote the newly grouped factors in a number sentence on their white boards and solved the equation.


Students with the correct product could become a new "factor" or the grouper.

We learned that it doesn't matter how you group the factors.


(1 x 2) x 5 = 1 x (2 x 5)


The product will always be the same.
We also learned that grouping certain factors together made it easier to come up with the product.

Perhaps you would like to play the games too!

6 comments:

  1. This looks like so much fun! I want to come to your math class.

    I love math games and I find that they really help me to remember my facts and also some really important rules of operation.

    The article had very good descriptions and the pictures really helped me to understand your game.

    Nice job everyone!

    Mrs. Harding

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dear Mrs Yollis,

    I love the idea of teaching multiplication games to help us learn.
    From,
    Taylor S.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dear Taylor S.,

    Thanks for your comment. I think that playing a game can be a good way to learn a new skill.

    I liked when people started noticing that when you have three factors, some factors were easier to group than others.

    Sincerly,
    Mrs. Yollis

    ReplyDelete
  4. Dear Shane and Matthew,
    Shane that was a great idea to blog about the math games.Matthew it was fun to work with you

    From,
    Sean

    ReplyDelete
  5. Dear Mathew, Sean , and Shane F.

    I like how you showed the action of what you did in the game! I like the hyper links too! The (grouper) link was so funny!


    Your friend,
    :D Lexi

    ReplyDelete
  6. Dear Shane, Matthew, and Sean,

    I loved your multiplication blog. It is very creative.

    Mrs. Yollis, I loved your joke about groupers! LOL
    Barb

    ReplyDelete

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