Multiplication Cups Competition

Explicit instruction/Teacher modeling

• Review the array model strategy by showing 3 x 2 as an array of 3 rows of dots in two columns.
• Show your students the repeated addition strategy, where 4 x 3 is also 4 + 4 + 4.
• Demonstrate how to use the number line model strategy. Show your students that they can practice 4 x 3 by jumping on the number line 4 steps at a time for three jumps.
• Use examples and draw them on the board.

Guided practice/Interactive modeling

• Give each student a different multiplication problem on an index card.
• Instruct your students to solve the problem on a blank sheet of paper using a strategy discussed previously.
• Have your students raise their papers up when they are finished.
• As a group, work out three of the students' problems.

Independent working time

• Divide your students into pairs.
• Hand each pair of students a set of cups with multiplication problems written on them.
• Challenge your students to answer as many questions as possible.
• Direct your students to stack the cups if they get the answer right. Remind them to be honest when they are self-checking.
• Ask your students to test each other using the strategies reviewed earlier.

• Enrichment: Make cups without the answers on the inside, and have your students play the game with these. Make a puzzle with the answers to multiplication questions.
• Support: Use manipulatives with your students so that they can visually see how multiplication involves grouping.

• Give your students clipboards and paper.
• Set up four different stations around the classroom with a multiplication question at each station.
• Instruct your students to number their papers from one to four. Have them write the answers to the questions at the stations corresponding to the number.
• Give your students 2 minutes at each station.
• At the end, collect their papers and evaluate their multiplication skills.

• As an exit ticket, have students write down an example of a time that they had to use multiplication in their daily lives.