Here is a rectangle covered in equal squares. The top row has 5 squares, and there are 4 rows stacked up.
If each row has 5 squares and there are 4 rows, do we really have to count every single square to find how many there are? Or is there a faster way?
Each interactive shows a rectangle made of equal squares and its rows-by-columns multiplication. Count the squares with the class first, then check that rows times squares-per-row lands on the same area.
Today we work through four rectangles one after another in the same board tool: 3 × 4, then 5 × 4, then 6 × 5, and finally 8 × 6. For each one, the pupil at the board builds the rows and columns and says the multiplication.
Everyone else has a job too: before each rectangle is built, predict the multiplication aloud with the class. Then we check that rows-times-columns matches counting the squares.
In your maths copy, draw a 5 cm by 3 cm rectangle on the squared page. Count the squares to find the area, then write the matching multiplication underneath it:
Today we find the area of these rectangles in turn: 3 × 4, then 6 × 5, then 9 × 4, and finally 7 × 5. Each one is a little bigger, so the times-table fact does more of the work as we go.
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