Veterans Day, on November 11, honors everyone who has served in the United States armed forces. These pages keep the focus on the flag and on medals, so they suit a classroom celebration or a lesson about saying thank you.
Five pages of multiplication built around the flag. Page 1 has six star arrays: students write each one as rows of stars and as a multiplication fact, starting from a worked example. Page 2 shows the flag's blue corner, where the 50 stars sit in 5 rows of 6 and 4 rows of 5, so 5 × 6 and 4 × 5 add up to 50; then three bigger star arrays are broken apart after 5 rows, as in 7 × 4 = 5 × 4 + 2 × 4. Page 3 writes two facts for each array of medals, the fact and its turnaround, then asks students to draw arrays for 3 × 7 and 4 × 6. On page 4 a striped banner covers all but the first column of each star array: students know the rows and the total and find how many are in each row, then solve six missing-factor equations and two word problems. Page 5 numbers the flag's 13 stripes (the red ones are odd), sorts eight products into odd and even, and finishes two rules: 4 times any number is even, and an odd number times an odd number is odd.
Show a real flag before page 2 and ask how you could count the stars without counting one by one. Page 2's break-apart arrays are a good place to model the strategy on the board with a dashed line after 5 rows. For page 4, cover part of an array of counters with a sheet of paper and let students reason out loud about what is hidden. Page 5 makes a short discussion: why is every stripe with an odd number red?
Look for arrays at home, such as eggs in a carton or windows on a building, and say the multiplication fact together. Ask your child to explain how they know 4 times any number is even. Talk about someone in your family or neighborhood who has served, and make a thank-you card together.
This pack supports the following Common Core State Standards for Mathematics:
© Copyright 2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved.
Multiplication with the stars and stripes of the American flag and rows of medals, for Veterans Day. Students write star arrays as facts, break the flag's 50 stars into rows, find missing factors and spot odd and even patterns.
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