We are beginning our most popular math unit of the year… Multiplication and Division! The students are super-excited and working well at the beginning stages of developing the concepts needed to succeed during this unit. Fully understanding the concepts will be only one of our foci. The other will be acquiring the multiplication and division facts as basic knowledge. It is so important that they are not just concentrating on one or the other, but both parts of learning- conceptual and factual.
In class, we will spend time working with strategies such as "draw it out" to show a picture which represents the situation of a problem. We can also use "count by's" or a number line to determine the multiples for a number. On the right is a link to multiplication songs. We will use visuals such as sets (or groups) and arrays (or organized columns and rows) to illustrate the factors and product. Right now, we are using counters and other small items to create visuals of multiplication situations. At home, you could use small blocks or pennies as counters.
We will be reviewing/learning the facts in a special order from easiest to hardest! (Beginning with multiplication, but very soon connecting multiplication to division.)
x 0 x 1 x10 are the easiest! Along with x11 and x5… These facts have very easy patterns to remember, and the students already know these patterns! They just need to practice applying what they know to multiplication stories and situations.
x9 has a special hand trick and visual pattern that the students will learn very soon.
Then we begin the middle level of difficulty.
x2 facts will be easy because the students already know these "even" multiples. x4 facts are "double" the x2 facts, so the students will associate them as we are learning.
x3 facts will be associated with the x6 facts in the same way.
The most difficult facts will be the x7 x8 and x12. We will discuss lots of fun ways to remember the tricky ones. Such as 7 x 7 is a "foot ball team!" (the 49ers) and 8 x 8 is "the interstate" (rt. 64)
I also suggest that students work with learning "double" facts. 2 x 2 and 3 x 3 and 4 x 4, etc… They always know 10 x 10 for some reason! :-) Find other ways to make this process FUN while the students are motivated. This is a "right of passage" for them and it will be difficult to recreate their enthusiasm later. The time is NOW!
The REFLEX accounts have just been reset for Multiplication and Division facts 0-12. Your student should try to work on REFLEX each night at home and stay focused on the program until the green light appears. Continue doing this until you are certain that your child is close to mastery of all facts. If REFLEX isn't your child's preference, it is fine to work with flashcards and other programs or games to learn the facts. The goal will be to become 80-100% fluent on these facts before the end of 3rd grade and the beginning of 4th grade. The sooner, the better. If you do not have access to the internet, I can easily send home flashcards.
https://www.reflexmath.com/
Here are a couple of helpful links for parents:
Video- 5 min. overview
“building fluency through conceptual understanding…”
http://gfletchy.com/2015/12/18/the-progression-of-multiplication/
VA Department Of Education - instructional videos
http://www.doe.virginia.gov/instruction/mathematics/resources/videos/index.shtml#
As always, thank you for all of your support at home! Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns about this information or your child's progress as we move through the quarter.
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