Visit #8 More Multiplication!

Hello Everyone!

This week I went in again for another lesson on multiplication. Since this entire term is dedicated to multiplication, we've been doing quite a bit of it the last couple of weeks. Since last week we did a musical lesson, I thought this week it would be fun to use art to teach multiplication. In the classroom, we used the number patterns produced by the multiplication tables to create geometric designs on graph paper. Here's what we did:

Every multiplication table has a pattern of the same base numbers. To get this pattern, we need to condense every table into single digit numbers by adding the separate numbers together. For instance, here are the 3 multiplications: 3x1=3, 3x2=6, 3x3=9, 3x4=12, 3x5=15, 3x6=18, and so on. To condense the larger numbers, we add them together so we take 12 and say 1+2=3 and again with 15: 1+5= 6. We can already see the pattern in this one, which is 3,6,9. After you have the pattern, you put the pencil to the graph paper and follow this pattern going first to the right, then down, left, and back up. This would give us 3 to the right, 6 down, 9 to the left, 3 up, and then 6 to the right again. You continue this pattern until you reach your starting point again. This gives us really intricate geometric patterns. The one for 3 is actually one of the simplest ones because the pattern is so small. It looks like this:

At the school, we did the 1 times tables to start out with because all of the answers are already single digit numbers. This design is much more intricate, however, because the pattern is much larger. (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,1,2, etc) Many of the students picked up the pattern immediately and began drawing without too much extra help. For the ones that weren't sure, I projected mine onto the smart board and drew slowly so they could go along with me. This way, each student felt the accomplishment of finishing the drawing regardless of their speed. Here are a few of their finished designs:

This activity is great because it really gets the students thinking critically about the times tables. They start to realize the principle of patterns in numbers and their importance, which not only supplements their learning but can also get them excited about the learning process itself. 

Here is another picture of the 2 times tables put into their geometric design:

Thank you for reading! See you next time!

-Kyra