Lesson 4

The purpose of this lesson is for students to analyze numerical patterns and use their understanding of place value and operations to find a rule and explain features of the pattern.

Previously, students examined numerical patterns alongside visual patterns (diagrams of pattern blocks, arrangements of shapes, attributes of rectangles, and so on). In this lesson, they focus solely on numerical patterns, without a visual representation. Students use their understanding of operations and place value to make sense of and explain patterns in multiples of numbers. Along the way, students have multiple opportunities to look for and make use of structure and regularity (MP7, MP8) to solve problems.

The reasoning in this lesson helps to transition students to the work in the next section, in which students explore strategies for multiplying single-digit numbers and multi-digit numbers up to four digits, and for multiplying 2 two-digit numbers. The third activity is optional as it provides an opportunity for extra practice.

What connections did students make between the different strategies shared? What questions did you ask to help make the connections more visible?