Methods for Multiplying and Dividing - The Complete Series (5 lessons)

This scheme of work contains five complete lessons with everything you need to deliver them, including detailed lesson plans, slides, differentiated activity ideas, and a range of printable worksheets, challenges and games.

This lesson starts with your class playing a game to encourage recall of known multiplication facts. They will then go on to consider which methods they are already familiar with for solving multiplication problems, before looking in more detail at formal short multiplication. Starting with two-digit by one-digit and progressing to three-digit by one-digit calculations as they become more confident, children will have plenty of chance to practise this method in a variety of fun contexts.

Now that your children have refreshed their understanding of formal short multiplication, they will start by ‘marking’ a short multiplication calculation that has already been completed. They will then describe in detail each step that needs to be taken to solve such calculations and why, before solving some missing number calculations. They can then solve a variety of calculations with up to four digits independently.

Children will recap the relationship between multiplication and division before looking in detail at the chunking method of division. After solving some division problems using chunking, children will use short multiplication (the inverse) to check that their calculations are correct, and vice versa.

During this lesson, children will consolidate their understanding of the short multiplication and chunking division methods to solve a variety of real-life problems. The slides go through several examples of ocean-themed questions to solve as a class, including key prompt questions to help children identify what they need to do in order to successfully solve word problems. They can then tackle a variety of word problems and challenges independently.

This lesson introduces children to the lattice method of multiplication. Firstly, they are shown a calculation that has been completed using this method and challenges them to use what they notice to explain how the method works. They can then go through some calculations as a class to familiarise themselves with this method. They are encouraged to describe why the method works and not just describe the steps needed to solve each problem, as well as to compare this to other known multiplication methods to assess ease, efficiency and accuracy.