How Many Monkey Treats

Est. Class Sessions: 1–2

Developing the Lesson

Tell Multiplication Stories.

Present this problem to launch the activity:

Each day the zookeeper needs to give four bunches of carrots to each of the three monkey habitats. How many bunches of carrots does he need to order?

Ask students to use connecting cubes to model the problem. Have them describe the operation in the problem in as many ways as they can. For example, there are 3 groups of four or there are 3 fours. Have students suggest number sentences and write them on the board. Include number sentences that express repeated addition (4 + 4 + 4 = 12) and multiplication (3 × 4 = 12). Remind students that a multiplication sentence means 3 groups of four or 3 fours or 4 groups of 3 or 4 threes. The × sign is read as times. Have students point to the groups of cubes to show what each number in the number sentence means. Be sure to emphasize that in a multiplication problem, each group must have the same numbers.

Continue to tell multiplication stories for students to model with their connecting cubes.

Each time, use the following prompts:

The zookeeper gives [4] [apples] to each of the [3] [monkeys]. How many [apples] does he need?
How did you model this problem?
What is an addition number sentence that describes your solution?
What does each number in the sentence refer to in the problem?
What is a multiplication sentence that describes your solution?
What does each number in the sentence refer to in the problem?

Introduce Game. Tell student pairs to pretend they are zookeepers preparing monkey treats consisting of cups filled with peanuts. Use the display of the Monkey Treats pages in Student Activity Book as students look at their own pages. Review the directions as you demonstrate using the Cups Spinner and the Peanuts Spinner to find the number of cups to draw and the number of peanuts to draw in each cup. A sample turn is shown in Figure 2.

Point out that the first number (2) tells a student how many cups to draw and the second number (3) tells how many peanuts to draw in each cup. Demonstrate or have a student demonstrate drawing the cups and peanuts on the display of the Monkey Treats Recording Sheet from the Student Activity Book. Have a student calculate the total number of peanuts and the addition and multiplication number sentences. After students have generated five number sentences showing the number of peanuts given as treats for each day, they use a calculator to add to find out how many peanuts the zookeeper gave out in all five days. The zookeeper who gave out the most treats wins.

Organize students into groups of 2 or more and allow them to play the Monkey Treats game. Provide access to connecting cubes.

Some students may benefit from using small plastic cups during the Monkey Treats game. Provide 5 cups in which they can place groups of connecting cubes to represent the peanuts.

Adventure Book:

Student Activity Book: 605 607 608

Answers