Topic A begins by revisiting the commutative property. Students study familiar facts from Module 1 to identify known facts using units of 6, 7, 8, and 9. They realize that they already know more than half of their facts by recognizing, for example, that if they know 2 × 8, they also know 8 × 2 through commutativity. This begins a study of arithmetic patterns that becomes an increasingly prominent theme in the module. The subsequent lesson carries this study a step further; students apply the commutative property to relate 5 × 8 and 8 × 5, and then add one more group of 8 to solve 6 × 8 and, by extension, 8 × 6. The final lesson in this topic builds fluency with familiar multiplication and division facts, preparing students for the work ahead by introducing the use of a letter to represent the unknown in various positions
This classroom resource provides a video that describes the process of multiplication as repeated addition of equal groups. The video also introduces the properties of multiplication. After utilizing this resource, the students can complete the short quiz to assess their understanding.
In this interactive activity, students will be led through steps to learn how to use the distributive property to solve multiplication problems. Although students at this grade level do not need to recall the formal term for these properties, they can use conceptual understanding as a strategy to solve multiplication problems. There are teaching activities as well as practice activities available. A handout that describes strategies taught during the interactive is available to be printed. After utilizing this resource, the students can complete the short quiz to assess their understanding.
In this video segment from Cyberchase, the CyberSquad is shooting a film. On their fourth day of filming, they hope to shoot an extra scene, which means their film supply costs will go up. They look at their budget and find that if they lower their crew costs, they can film the extra scene without going over their budget for the day. The crew uses their multiplication and division skills to budget the extra scene.
