From: corolida francis <corolida9@yahoo.com>
To: Teacher2Teacher Public Discussion
Date: 2009050221:53:53
Subject: Using manipulatives to teach multiplication



I have use counters of different colours to teach multiplication to
grade three and it works.  I told them that a red counter represent
one group of ten and  blue counter represent ones.  so first of all
give them a mixture of counters and ask them to call out the number it
would represent. For example 3 red and 5 blue would be 35.  then ask
them how many tens and how many ones are in your number. allow stdents
to write their numbers as 30+ 5 =35  when students are able to expand
their numbers then more into the process of multiplication.

35 x 3 =  30 x 3 + 5 x 3
            90 + 15

allow students to use three rows of three red counter  + 3 rows of 5
blue counter.  let them count the red counters as 10, 20,30 etc. 
Be patient with them and as they ubderstand the concrete then you can
move away to the abstract.

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