Simple Circle Multiplication

Are your students ready for an easy way to explore the commutative property?

Simple Circle Multiplication helps students see the commutative property of multiplication in action. Each activity page focuses on two factors and their product. The pair of concentric circles on the page illustrate different equations; in one the larger factor is written first and in the other the smaller factor is written first.

Like a pie chart, each circle is separated into slices.  The circle in the example above is comprised of twelve individual pieces. These twelve pieces are divided equally into four slices. The first factor in the equation is 4 to show that there are four slices or groups. There are 3 pieces in each slice, as shown by the second factor in the equation.

The colorful slices make it easy for students to connect the circle models with repeated addition. In the example above, the four groups with three pieces in each are clear to see. When writing the analogous addition sentence, students can assign the color of the group to each addend to show why three is being added to itself four times.

Simple Circle Multiplication is similar to Concentric Circle Multiplication ~ but less demanding. Rather than have students make each individual piece of a circle a different color, students make every slice of a circle a different color. This way, all the pieces of each slice will be in the same color.