Multiples

I have been very excited to see how well your children are understanding multiplication! It's as if they were born knowing it. :O)

We have learned that multiplication deals with equal groups. We have also learned that multiplication is the same as repeated addition. So, 3 x 5 = 5 + 5 + 5.

Over the last couple of days children have been skip counting. And wouldn't you know it, skip counting is just like multiplying! The children have used hundred charts to record their skip counting by 2s, 3s, 4s... all the way to 12s.

The children have learned that the numbers they are skip counting with are actually multiples of the original number. So if you are skip counting by 2s - 2,4,6,8,10... All the numbers you say are actually multiples of 2. If you are skip counting by 7s - 7,14,21,28,35... All the numbers you say are actually multiples of 7.

In order to connect it back to multiplication, think of it this way:

I know 28 is a multiple of 2 because I skip count 14 times to get there
(2,4,6,8,10,12,14,16,18,20,22,24,26,28) OR 2 x 14 = 28.

I know 63 is a multiple of 9 because I skip count 7 times to get there
(9,18,27,36,45,54,63) OR 9 x 7 = 63.

When children practice skip counting by different numbers, they are remembering multiples, but also beginning to memorize their multiplication facts!