• Ongoing formative assessment can be made during small-group work, workstations, and teacher -student discussions.
• Lesson 2 Exit Ticket (M-3-2-2_Lesson 2 Exit Ticket and KEY.doc) may be used to further evaluate student progress and mastery.

“Today, we are going to listen to two stories and learn how to skip count to help us understand multiplication. We will be creating multiplication problems in groups and illustrating them in our own picture books.”

Hold up the book What comes in 2’s, 3’s, and 4’s? by Suzanne Aker.

“Let’s look at the cover. What do you think of this book will be about?”

Take student suggestions and predictions about the book.

After reading the story, organize students into pairs or have them pair up on their own. “For this activity you will need to be in pairs. You will need to be creative and come up with some items or things that come in the same specific size groupings, for instance, gloves come in twos, shoes come in twos, what else comes in twos? Or threes? Or fours?”

“In your groups, make a list of things that come in twos, threes, fours, and so on up through tens.” Using the random reporter method, call on different students to give their answers, and start recording their information on a chart pad or on the board.

“Who knows how to skip count? Who can explain it to the rest of the class?” Using an example from the chart, for instance, “Robbie said the number of eyes on a person come in twos, so let’s skip count to find out how many eyes there would be with eight people.” Write the numbers on the board, overhead projector or chart pad, as students skip count.
(two, four, six, eight . . .  sixteen) Above each number write 1, 2, 3…8. “We skip counted by twos, and we skip counted eight times, our answer was 16 eyes on eight people.”

Draw eight pairs of eyes on the board or projector. (Do not draw them as an array yet).

“I am going to read you another book called Each Orange Had 8 Slices by Paul Giganti, Jr. Let’s look at the cover, what do you think this book is about?” Take student suggestions and predictions about the book.

“As we read the story I want you to notice the pictures and groups of items that are on each page.” Some sample questions to ask after reading the book include:

• “What did you learn from the book?”
• “How many petals were there?”
• “How many ants were on each petal?”
• “How many ants were on all the petals? How did you figure that out?”
• “How many ants were on all the flowers? Explain how you got your answer.”

Display a poster of the following multiplication steps.

“Let’s solve another problem and use all the multiplication problem-solving steps on the poster.”

“We are going to review the steps on our chart paper by working through this word problem. Who wants to come to the board and make a proof drawing?” Instruct students to do their own proof drawing in their journals/papers.

Example of a proof drawing:

“Write the numbers you would skip count just below your proof drawing. Now write a repeated addition sentence below the skip count numbers.”

Point to the poster and say: “Who can tell me how to fill in the blanks for the group phrase?” (Four groups of five is the same as twenty.) Write the phrase on the board below the repeated addition sentence. Have students write the phrase in their journals/papers as well.

“Now I am going to show you how to write a multiplication number sentence. I am going to write the sentence the same way as the grouping phrase only replacing the words with math symbols. The four, the five, and the twenty are already math symbols.” Write the 4, the 5, and the 20, leaving spaces between.

“Does anyone know what math symbol would be the same as ‘groups of’?” If students are not familiar with the multiplication symbol tell them. “The phrase ‘groups of’ is a multiplication symbol that looks like this.” Write a multiplication symbol under the words “groups of.”

“What math symbol could replace the words ‘is the same as’?” Students probably know that the phrase “is the same as” is the = symbol. Write an equal symbol between the 5 and the 20.

“Who can tell me how to write a sentence that tells the answer to the problem?” Students should be able to say “Pete’s Pet Shop has 20 rabbits.”

Display the following word problems on the overhead projector.

• Rosie had 3 spiders in her bug collection. Each spider had 8 legs. How many legs did the spiders have in all? (24)
• Del Shawn’s bookcase has 4 shelves. There are 6 books on each shelf. How many books are there in all? (24)

“In your journals I would like you to solve the following word problems using the multiplication problem-solving steps. When you are finished with the first problem raise your hand so I can check your work.”

Rotate through the room and assess student work, helping students who are having trouble. After students have the first problem checked, they should begin the second problem; the second problem could also be used as a homework assignment.

An optional problem set is available if students need additional problems to practice or you would like to demonstrate additional problems to the class (M-3-2-2_School Multiplication Story Problems and KEY.doc).

Extension:

Use the activities and strategies listed below to meet the needs of your students throughout the year.

• Routine: Students who could benefit from additional practice may work with partners. “With your partner, write a multiplication problem for any of the examples in your journal. You will skip count or use repeated addition to find the answer.” When they are done, use the random reporter method to have a few problems shared with the class.
• Small Group: Put students into groups. Pass out construction paper and markers and have each group create pictures of things that come in groups of twos, etc. When students are finished with the routine activity, have them staple or bind the pictures into booklets. Students needing opportunities for additional learning can make a picture book showing groups up to fives, and others can make a book showing groups up to nines.
• Expansion: Students who have demonstrated proficiency may work on multiplication problems with three factors, for example, “There are 3 oranges. Each orange has
  8 segments and each segment has 5 seeds. How many seeds are there all together?”

This lesson is designed as a progression to learn multiplication through familiar skip-counting techniques. Pete’s Pet Shop problem used fives as the skip counting number. Then students wrote the skip counting as a repeated number sentence. After this, students wrote the repeated addition of “_____ groups of ______ are the same as ______” and transferred this information to a traditional multiplication number sentence. Writing the answer to the word problems in a sentence format prepares students to label answers to word problems with units in future years.