Macaroni Multiplication-Associative and Distributive Properties

During our second unit on multiplication and division, where we delve in deeper and explore the properties, one of my FAVORITE lessons I've done for the past two years is my "Macaroni Multiplication" lesson.

We kick the lesson off with a silly song about pasta (link in the lesson plan here) and then students are divided up into 4 groups. Two groups work on solving and writing distributive word problems, one works with just associative, and a challenge group uses associative and distributive properties to solve word problems that involve 4-digit numbers.

While I consider this a challenge and extension lesson for all of my students, I place my strugglers in the associative group, my "on-grade levels" in the distributive group, and my high fliers in the mixed group.

Each group is named after a different type of pasta and has to use sauce and pasta food labels to solve word problems and to write their own. Each student completes a finished project using elbow macaroni in place of the (round brackets).

While many students complained the project made them hungry--even though it was right after lunch on penne pasta day!!!!!--they loved it and begged to listen to the pasta song again at the end.

Get your students in on the fun by clicking here!!

Ringing In The New Year (FREEBIE ALERT!)

Well...this week we had ONE half day of school, so I suppose you could say we eased back into it!?

My students and I did a quick writing project. We have been working on parts of sentence so the students had to write two complete sentences for this quick check in. WHAT was their resolution for the New Year and WHY.

As I had a few students who were absent, so my bulletin board is still under construction but the final result is just too cute NOT to share.

I printed this paper in black and white for their rough drafts, and in color for the final.
(CLICK HERE FOR YOUR WRITING PAPER FREEBIE!)

I had a student help me cut out the ovals for the faces, and gave each student a piece of paper to "cut" their own hair.

I drew two versions of a party hat on white paper and 2014 in bubble letters then photocopied these onto different colors of construction paper. I prefer this method to having students try and share tracers, saves a little bit of time.

Students colored and decorated their hats and glasses with crayons, colored pencils, and of course some sequins for some added sparkle!

Once the students assemble their people, I stapled some ribbon to the top, cute out circles for their hands and attached their final drafts. The final projects are just too cute!

Since I have been procrastinating a trip to the teacher's store, I printed out some cute clipart from http://www.mycutegraphics.com/ to jazz up my bulletin board!

I was in a hurry to get the board up, but now I regret not laminating the pieces I used to use in the future. Oh well!

 

As an added bonus, one student brought in plastic New Year party hats to share with the class!

I let the students wear them while working as "thinking caps"

 

The bulletin board in progress...