3 Hands-On Activities to Teach 2nd Grade Multiplication and Division
I couldn't believe it when I found out I had to teach second grade multiplication and division. I remember first learning these concepts in third grade and all we did was memorize facts and take timed quizzes. Now students are expected to learn multiplication and division at a younger age using many different representations and strategies.
Several weeks into my first year teaching, my math coach came to me and said she found a vacant classroom upstairs that had been locked and inside were hundreds of math manipulatives and resources. She told me to grab as much as I wanted to keep in my classroom. At first I was thrilled, but then I realized I had no idea what to grab or how to use them in my lessons. Classic first year panic!
Throughout the rest of my first year and subsequent years teaching, I learned the importance of using these concrete models to teach students new concepts. In this blog post I’ll be sharing three manipulatives to help you teach second grade multiplication and division. I’ll show you five activities using:
Cuisenaire Rods
Square Color Tiles
Snap Cubes
Please keep in mind that if you have limited supplies, you can still complete these activities in your classroom. Just have students work with a partner or in groups so you don’t need a full classroom set.
If you’re anything like I was and completely lost on how to use math manipulatives, you’re not alone! Let’s jump right in.
Cuisenaire Rods
It took me a while to figure out how to use cuisenaire rods, but once I did they became one of my favorite resources.
Activity #01: Cuisenaire rods to teach students the commutative property of multiplication (changing the order of the numbers being multiplied does not change the result).
Distribute cuisenaire rods and rulers to each student.
The colors of each cuisenaire rod correspond to different lengths:
White: 1 cm
Red: 2 cm
Green: 3 cm
Pink: 4 cm
Yellow: 5 cm
Brown: 8 cm
Orange: 10 cm
Students use the cuisenaire rods with the centimeter side of the ruler to demonstrate the commutative property of multiplication as shown below:
Activity #02: Cuisenaire rods to teach students how to solve division equations.
Distribute cuisenaire rods to each student.
Keeping in mind that the colors of each cuisenaire rod correspond to different lengths, ask students how many of one color fits within a different color. For example:
Extend this activity by having students figure out how a whole number can be divided into different equal groups. For example:
Don’t have cuisenaire rods? That’s ok! Check out my second grade multiplication and division units, which include all of these activities using visual representations instead of concrete models.
Square Color Tiles
Activity #03: Square color tiles to teach students multiplication using arrays.
Distribute square color tiles to each student.
Ask students to build arrays with a variety of rows and columns. For example:
This lesson is available in my second grade multiplication basics unit
Have students write the equation multiplying the number of rows by the number of columns.
Then have them solve the equation by counting the tiles individually or skip counting the rows.
Activity #04: Square color tiles to determine how numbers can be divided into equal groups.
Distribute square color tiles to each student.
Have students make rectangles with 15, 16, 17, and 18 tiles.
Ask, “Which rectangles can be divided into equal groups?”
Answers:
15 tiles can be divided into 3 equal groups of 5, or 5 equal groups of 3
16 tiles can be divided into 2 equal groups of 8, 8 equal groups of 2, or 4 equal groups of 4
17 cannot be divided into equal groups
18 tiles can be divided into 2 equal groups of 9, 9 equal groups of 2, 3 equal groups of 6, or 6 equal groups of 3
Snap Cubes
Activity #05: Snap cubes to separate objects into equal groups and solve division equations.
Distribute snap cubes to each student.
Ask students to make rectangles with a specific number of cubes and a specific number of columns. For example:
Once students are finished separating their cubes into columns, they can count how many rows they ended up with to find the solution to the division equation.
Be sure to also download my FREE elementary math vocab cards with tips on how to teach and incorporate math vocabulary in your classroom! Use the form below to get instant access!
