Multiplication - Rectangles of Tens and Ones

We built rectangles to visualize the meaning of multiplication.

Cuisenaire Rods are great for math, but sometimes the complete set of rods can make comprehension more difficult.

One option is to experiment with only the ones and tens.

Multiplication rectangles can be easily built. In the above photo, the smaller rectangle represents 4x5=20. By building a rectangle with four cubes along one side and five along the other, the total can be determined by counting the cubes or by multiplying 4x5 to arrive at 20.

Using the same method, larger rectangles can be constructed replacing the one unit cubes with tens. In this way they are much quicker to count. The above photo illustrates 12x2=24.

In the future, I plan to replace the units with rods explaining that it will be easier to skip-count as opposed to counting all of the units. In the above photo which shows 22x4, the eight unit cubes would be replaced with four 2 unit rods. Although it is fairly quick to count to eight, multiplying 26x9 would result in many more units. Replacing them with six unit rods would make the counting much faster.

To see more of our hands on math activities please visit our Math Page.


  




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