Take two or three hands-up answers, not open call-outs. You are fishing for the idea of splitting into tens and units (30 + 4, 20 + 6) — if nobody offers it, say 'what if we split each one into its tens and units?' and move straight on. Keep this to one minute; the splitting is built properly in the next step.

34 × 26: 30 and 4 down the side, 20 and 6 along the top, four boxes. Name each as you point: 30×20=600, 30×6=180, 4×20=80, 4×6=24, add to 884. Coin the term partial product here.

123 × 14: 100, 20, 3 and 10, 4. A three-digit factor just adds one more column of boxes, method unchanged.

256 × 23: 200, 50, 6 and 20, 3. Ask which box is biggest and why: 200×20=4,000, the biggest place-value parts give the biggest area. Pause for their reasoning.

Stress throughout: partial products always add back to the same total, partitioning never changes the number.

This round is for talking it through together — a pupil at the board fills one box at a time and the class agrees or corrects out loud.

The split is already into tens and units (40 + 7, 30 + 8). Before each box is confirmed, pose a quick question to the whole class — 'what does this box come to?' — take two hands-up answers, then revoice the agreed one so the back rows hear a classmate reason it out. Watch for the common slip of multiplying 40 × 30 as 120 instead of 1,200 — head it off by saying 'four tens times three tens is twelve hundreds'.

These are the practice questions — pupils take turns at the board, check each answer, and the class confirms before moving on. Keep the board work brisk rather than over-explaining.

For each product ask 'which partial product is the largest here, and why?' — it is always the box made by the two biggest place-value parts. With 263 × 35 and 318 × 46, watch for pupils forgetting one of the six boxes; count the boxes aloud before adding.

Recap the three bullets quickly, pointing back at one of the area-model grids still on screen. Keep this under two minutes.