If Only I owned a copy of “And Then the Doorbell Rang.”

Last week at some point, M asked me how to multiply 3 numbers together. I wanted to remember to pull out the cuisenaire rods to show how it didn’t matter in which order he multiplied them, and of course, that reminded me of edible manipulatives. And including K.

So I asked her to bring in 5 stuffed animals. (As many as you have fingers on one hand K. “Is that 2 and 2 and 1 Momma?” Yes, that’s 2 and 2 and 1.)

Then they divided the candies (without unwrapping them! Or expecting to eat more than two each when we were done!) between the two, then three, then four, and finally five animals.

Then I pulled out the rods and showed M the patterns of multiplying more than two numbers at time. I couldn’t resist showing him how you can pull apart multiples into their multiples, if it gives you easier numbers to multiply and remember.

M gave me the “This is cool, but I hope you don’t expect me to remember all of it later.” look, and we cleaned up the table, and did dictation and history reading.

So now I just need to get a copy of “And then the Doorbell Rang” to read it to the kids – I think I can get it inter-library loan.

2 Replies to “If Only I owned a copy of “And Then the Doorbell Rang.””

  1. Karen, you’d love it: it’s a picture book about an afternoon baking cookies and distributing them evenly, then someone else comes over and they have to do the math again. Finally Grandma bakes more cookies so there will be enough.