Hi 3E!  WOOT!  WOOT!  Happy New Year!  I’ll see you tomorrow in 2014.  Liam helped me get the classroom ready – thank you Liam! – and I am looking forward to some exciting projects of mapping, global geography, magnets,multiplication, questioning and great reading and writing.

This week’s problems and activities will help you explore the ideas and concepts that build multiplication.  Have fun solving and playing.  Leave a comment to let us know what you’ve done.  Maybe you’ll even come up with a problem of your own to challenge us with.  Happy Math!

Mrs. Oliver has 24 students in the 5th grade chorus.  She wants to place them in groups for the spring concert.  She wants there to be an equal number of singers in each group.  How many different ways can Mrs. Oliver group the students?

There are 32 oranges to put into bowls.  Each bowl must have the seem number of oranges.  How many different ways can the oranges be put into bowls? 

Choose one of the following numbers:  18, 20 or 28.  Suppose that this number of musicians in a marching band were getting ready for a parade.  How many different ways could they arrange themselves into equal rows?

Multiply It! (click here for the directions and game pieces) is a game for practicing multiplying by 2’s and 5’s.  You’ll know some of them already.  This game will help you learn these sets of multiples more automatically.  You’ll have to make the spinner with a paper clip and a triangle of cardboard.  It’s worth the extra effort if you need help with these facts.

Multiples is another game for learning different set of facts.  If there isn’t a board for the multiples, then please make one.  It’s a fun way to practice and learn more about multiplication.