Multiplication and Rectangles

Demonstrate the Game. Direct students' attention to the Floor Tiler pages in the Student Activity Book. This is a game for 2–4 players. Read the directions for the game together as a class. Demonstrate the game using displays of the Floor Tiler Grid Paper and Spinners 1–4 and 1–10 pages. A student spins to find two numbers for a multiplication sentence. He or she may use either two spins from one spinner or one spin from each spinner. After finding the product, the player colors in a rectangle with that number of squares, outlining this rectangle and recording its number sentence inside.

Make it clear that the player can use any two factors of the product to make a rectangle, not just the facts on the spinner. For example, spins of 3 and 4 could result in a rectangle with 3 rows of 4 squares, 4 rows of 3 squares, 1 row of 12 squares, 12 rows of 1 square, 2 rows of 6 squares, or 6 rows of 2 squares. Players can make these choices based on which size rectangle they need to fill in the spaces they have remaining on their grid. Remind students that the squares colored in must connect so that they form rectangles. No other shapes are allowed.

Players continue in this fashion until one player fills in his or her grid completely. It will become difficult to fill in the grid completely when only a few squares are left. You may wish to tell students that if no player is able to color in a rectangle in three rounds of spinning, the player with the fewest squares left is the winner. Or, set a time limit on the game, and the player with the fewest squares left is the winner.

Play the Game and Share Strategies. Have students play Floor Tiler in groups of 2 to 4. Encourage students to try a variety of strategies.

Students can take home the Floor Tiler, pages and use pencil-and-paper-clip spinners to play the game with a family member for homework. Provide additional copies of the Floor Tiler Grid Paper Master. Encourage students to try a variety of strategies when they play again.