[pink.sparkles]

Hi All!

I'm teaching the distributive property to my 5th grade class, and they are struggling a bit. Does anyone have any resources they use or tips to help them get to "got it?" I have done the video that comes with our text (envisions) broke it down with manipulatives on the ELMO, and I have done small group instruction. I'm thinking today I will do more practice and try watching the brainpop video on it or perhaps the khan academy video.

Any help is appreciated! Thanks.

[teachandtri]

I am getting ready to teach that to my 3rd graders. Last year we got pipe cleaners or coffee stirs (the ones that are flat work best) and used them to separate the parts. We used counters and the stirs and the kids began to understand. It was much better than the way our book was teaching it. They really needed the chance to manipuiate the arrays. Hope this helps you.

[ms-math]

I showed the property with skittles and displayed how they all still got 2 pieces even when the property was rewritten. Ex: 2 skittles(Ian + Katie)=2 for Ian and (+) 2 for Katie. They don't share 2 pieces, but both still get 2 pieces each.