Picture Your Method

For the first part of this task, you're going to try to answer a calculation in your head, without using pencil or paper. When you're ready, click below to see the calculation.

The answer is definitely not the most interesting part of this problem! Much more interesting is thinking about the way you arrived at your answer.

Below you can read what five learners said when they were asked how they worked out their answer:

Bryan:

Neil:

Sammi:

Ricardo:

Jaime:

Was your method the same as any of these? If not, describe what you did.

We can also draw each of these ways of working out 18x5. (We might say we can represent each one visually.)

Can you match each drawing below to one of the methods described above? (We've labelled each of the drawings with a letter to make it easier to refer to a particular one.) 

You may like to print off this sheet which contains all five descriptions and all five drawings, and which could be cut up into ten cards.

How did you decide on the pairings?

If you used a different method, create a drawing of your method too.

This task is inspired by a YouCubed resource and is used with permission.