This resource is from Tools 4 NC Teachers. In this lesson, students will play a game and see multiplication as combining equal groups, use repeated addition and other strategies to find the total number of stars, and record answers by writing equations.

Circles and Stars Directions 

•  Teacher: Player One rolls the die and draws the corresponding number of circles at the top on the top row of the recording sheet. If the player rolls a 4, the player will draw 4 circles

•  Student:Player Two rolls the die and draws the corresponding number of circles in the round one box on his/her recording sheet. If player two rolls a 1, the player will draw 1 circle.

•  Teacher: Player One rolls the die a second time and draws the corresponding number of stars in each circle. (An option may be to draw Xs which are easier to draw.) If a player rolls a 2, the player will draw 2 stars in each circle. (See Player One’s (Jack) recording sheet.) Player records both the addition and multiplication equation for each round. Many students will need to record both equations to move them from repeated addition to multiplication.  Later, they might just record for multiplication.

• Student: Player 2 rolls a second time and draws the corresponding number of stars on his/her recording sheet.  Player 2 records equations.