For many years I dreaded having to teach my 3rd graders the Distributive Property of Multiplication. They just always seemed to struggle! Then one day I had an idea that changed ALL of that and teaching the Distributive Property has actually become one of my FAVORITE math lessons of the year! What’s my secret you ask? The Distributive Doctor more on Doctor D. in a little bit… But first, let’s talk about planning… I like to block out a few days (usually 3-4) in order to provide my kiddos with plenty of practice at all 3 levels of instruction: concrete (using manips), pictorial (making drawings), and abstract (using numbers). We begin by… Manipulatives are key in order for students to be able to “see” and truly understand this property. So we use them quite a bit in the beginning! I’ll start off by having my students show me an array. (This step is usually easy, since we’ve already learned about multiplication and arrays.) Next, I tell them that we’re all going to be distributive doctors or surgeons for the day! They LOVE this! I even refer to them as Dr. Smith or Dr. Rodriguez :0) You should see their faces light up […]
