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K–12 teaching and learning · from the UNC School of Education

Looking for calculator patterns

http://illuminations.nctm.org/LessonDetail.aspx?ID=L325

A lesson plan for grades 3–4 Mathematics

Provider: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics


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Students use a web-based calculator to create and compare counting patterns using the constant function feature of the calculator. Making connections between multiple representations of counting patterns reinforces students understanding of this important idea and helps them recall these patterns as multiplication facts. Illuminations provides resources for completing this activity. After students skip count their multiplication tables, they explore a web resource that focuses on number relationships and properties. Then, students play a number card game and participate in a class discussion about multiplication tables.

Students will:

  • Skip count by twos, threes, fives, and tens.
  • Find products by adding equal sets.
  • Explore commutativity.
  • Practice the multiplication facts.
  • Record products on a multiplication chart.

NCTM Standards and Expectations covered in this lesson include:

  • Recognizing equivalent representations for the same number and generate them by decomposing and composing numbers.
  • Identifying and using relationships between operations, such as division as the inverse of multiplication, to solve problems.
  • Understanding various meanings of multiplication and division.

North Carolina Curriculum Alignment

Mathematics (2004)

Grade 3

  • Goal 1: Number and Operations - The learner will model, identify, and compute with whole numbers through 9,999.
    • Objective 1.01: Develop number sense for whole numbers through 9,999.
      • Connect model, number word, and number using a variety of representations.
      • Build understanding of place value (ones through thousands).
      • Compare and order.
    • Objective 1.02: Develop fluency with multi-digit addition and subtraction through 9,999 using:
      • Strategies for adding and subtracting numbers.
      • Estimation of sums and differences in appropriate situations.
      • Relationships between operations.
    • Objective 1.03: Develop fluency with multiplication from 1x1 to 12x12 and division up to two-digit by one-digit numbers using:
      • Strategies for multiplying and dividing numbers.
      • Estimation of products and quotients in appropriate situations.
      • Relationships between operations.
    • Objective 1.04: Use basic properties (identity, commutative, associative, order of operations) for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.
    • Objective 1.06: Develop flexibility in solving problems by selecting strategies and using mental computation, estimation, calculators or computers, and paper and pencil.

Grade 4

  • Goal 1: Number and Operations - The learner will read, write, model, and compute with non-negative rational numbers.
    • Objective 1.01: Develop number sense for rational numbers 0.01 through 99,999.
      • Connect model, number word, and number using a variety of representations.
      • Build understanding of place value (hundredths through ten thousands).
      • Compare and order rational numbers.
      • Make estimates of rational numbers in appropriate situations.
    • Objective 1.02: Develop fluency with multiplication and division:
      • Two-digit by two-digit multiplication (larger numbers with calculator).
      • Up to three-digit by two-digit division (larger numbers with calculator).
      • Strategies for multiplying and dividing numbers.
      • Estimation of products and quotients in appropriate situations.
      • Relationships between operations.
    • Objective 1.04: Develop fluency with addition and subtraction of non-negative rational numbers with like denominators, including decimal fractions through hundredths.
      • Develop and analyze strategies for adding and subtracting numbers.
      • Estimate sums and differences.
      • Judge the reasonableness of solutions.
    • Objective 1.05: Develop flexibility in solving problems by selecting strategies and using mental computation, estimation, calculators or computers, and paper and pencil.