Visual MultiplicationDots and Circles

By: Ms. Limoli

Discussion Question

If someone dumped a jar of pennies in front of you and asked you to count all of them, how would you approach the task? Would you count each penny one by one? Or would you group them together into piles?

The easiest way to find the total number of items in equal groups is to use

multiplication.

There are 4 marshes.  There are 4 ducks.

Each duck wants to visit each marsh.

Draw a line from each duck to each marsh.

How many lines did you draw?

4 x 4 = ______

Another possibility is to have…

Ducks are circles

Marches are dots

Each circle stands for one of the ducks.

Each dot in the circle stands for each marsh the duck visited.

Next…

Count the number of black dots in each circle and the

answer is…

16So 4x4= 16

Let’s try another one… There are 5 trees.  There are 2 parrots.

Each parrot wants to visit each tree.

How many circles do we draw?

How many dots do we put in each circle?

10

5 x 2 = 10

Try on your own… 3 x 2 =

7 x 1 =

4 x 2 =

5 x 3 =