The students in Mr. Moreno's fifth-grade class are getting ready for the school play. Nila and Ana went to the auditorium to find out how many seats there are.

Nila said, “There are 49 rows and 20 seats in each row. That's 49 times 20. I wish I brought paper and pencil.”

Ana said, “That's easy enough to do in our heads. We can use simpler numbers.”

How can Ana and Nila find the number of seats without paper and pencil? Show or tell how you know.
There are 24 students in Mr. Moreno's class. If each student makes 15 posters for the play, how many posters will they make? Find your answer using mental math or by writing just a few notes.

Using Rectangles

Complete the How Many Squares pages in the Student Activity Book.

Setting Up for the Play

The class found out they will have to set up chairs for the play in the school gym because the auditorium needs to be painted.

Mr. Moreno said, “We know the gymnasium can fit 38 rows of chairs with 24 chairs in each row. How many chairs will we be able to fit into the gym?”

“I think we're going to have to multiply 38 by 24,” said Michael, “but those numbers are hard to multiply in our heads.”