standard_description: Use variables to represent numbers and write expressions when solving a real-world or mathematical problem; understand that a variable can represent an unknown number, or, depending on the purpose at hand, any number in a specified set.
problem_activity: Narrative
This Number Talk encourages students to think about the strategies they can use to multiply 2 two-digit numbers. Students can decompose factors by place value to multiply by multiples of ten, or they can use a doubling and halving strategy to create an equivalent expression. The strategies elicited here will be helpful later in developing a flexible sense of numbers and using this sense to make decisions when multiplying mentally.
Launch
Display one expression.
“Give me a signal when you have an answer and can explain how you got it.”
1 minute: quiet think time
Activity
Record answers and strategy.
Keep expressions and work displayed.
Repeat with each expression.
Student Facing
Find the value of each expression mentally.
\(30 \times 7\)
\(15 \times 14\)
\(50 \times 8\)
\(25 \times 16\)
Student Response
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Activity Synthesis
“How can
\(30 \times 7\)
help you solve
\(15 \times 14\)
?” (
\(30 \times 7\)
is twice as many groups with half as much in each group, which results in the same product with easier factors to multiply mentally.)


aligns: no