Multiplication Madness!

Posted on Sep 26, 2012 in Maths

Groups of, bags of, lots of, doubles, triples, products….it’s multiplication madness in Grade 4 this week!

We’ve been looking at all the ways to think about, represent and calculate multiplication. We’ve used arrays of objects, drawings, number sentences and formal algorithms.

 

We’ve discovered that memorising our times tables really helps!

We’ve had speed competitions to find products, totals and differences. Each team works out their own strategies and the winners are constantly changing.

 

 

 

 

We’ve also had fun writing math problems about events from camp. For example, if there were 17 sticks and 12 marshmallows on each stick, how many marshmallows were there in total? We are very good at using all four operations (+, -, x, /) in word problems now.

Here we are solving each others’ word problems:

 

Some people in our class have such a good understanding of formal algorithms, they can work with algebra.

 

 

Stay tuned for interesting word problems and their solutions!

Add your own word problem for a friend to solve.

 

5 Comments

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  1. Geon Woo

    Dear Ms.O’Dwyer
    This multiplication week is so cool.Thank you for teaching us these cool multiplication words, like product, times and quadruple. Are there any more cool multiplication words?

    Kind regards,Geon Woo

    • Ms O'Dwyer

      Dear Geon Woo,

      Good question! Sometimes in English, we use the word “-fold” to mean multiplication. Five-fold (x5), six-fold (x6), eight-fold (x8) etc.

      For example, your money might increase five-fold over the next 10 years. If you started with 200RMB, you would have 1000RMB in 10 years. The word “fold” is telling you to do multiplication or repeated addition.

      Great question!
      Now – what else can you find?
      Are there “tuple” words above quardruple? Do some research and let us know!

      Thanks for being a great mathematician!

      Ms O’D

  2. Diana

    Dear Ms O’dwyer,
    I’ve learned many things about geometry, as the words diameter and hypotenuse. But I have a question for you and other friends.
    Why are there only shapes or angles and lines? Aren’t there more kinds of geometry?

    I’ll wait for your fantastic reply.

    Sincerely, Diana

  3. Sang Won

    Dear Ms.O’Dwyer
    The multiplication problems are so fun. Multiplication is the one math activity that I like the best! Also multiplication is the math topic that I’m best at! I learned so many words I didn’t know before, like product, lots of, bags of, and quadruple. Is there a math word which means times(x)5, 6, 7, 8, and 9? ( Like double, triple, quadruple)?

    Kind regards,
    Sang Won

  4. Jermaine

    Dear Ms O’Dwyer

    Before I didn’t know what geometry, diameter and hypotenuse were. Now I know some of these words but I have question for you Ms O’Dwyer. What does hypotenuse mean?

    Jermaine