Multiplication Clusters

Multiplication Clusters can be a little tricky. Your thoughts of making lists as your first step really impressed me! For example, when you broke 74 into many different ways such as 50, 20, and 4 OR.... 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, and 4. When you worked together in your groups and put your brains together, this strategy surfaced and I believe this strategy will stay with you forever.

You then took the second step, which was placing a multiplication sign and a 6 next to each of the numbers in your list. This really put the concept into perspective!! A lot of light bulbs came on this time around...compared to the first time!

Here are some final thoughts:

74 x 6

74: 20, 20, 20, 10, 4

(20 x 6) + (20 x 6) + (20 x 6) + (10 x 6) + (4 x 6)

120 + 120 + 120 + 60 + 24

Combine the 120's and you get 300 and 60
Combine the 60 and 24 and you get 84
Combine the 80 and the 84 and you get 144
So....300 + 144 = 444


You may combine them differently:
All of the 120's will make 300 and 60
Combine the two 60's and you get 120
So you now have 300, 120, and 24
420 + 24 = 444

Everyone thinks differently, and different landmark numbers can be pulled out. There is not ONE way of doing this type of math. There are SEVERAL ways of computing this type of math!