Making Connections with Two-Digit Multiplication.

Norfolk Public Schools is arranged in a spiral, with concepts from twelve basic strands continually reviewed and developed. An emphasis is placed on connecting new ideas with previously studied concepts and on using models and manipulatives to understand the underlying operations. This curriculum has furnished a good framework for my mathematics instruction. As the year progresses, my fourth-grade students are able to identify reasonable estimates before solving problems. They can confidently demonstrate solutions using Dienes blocks and area models drawn on paper for multiplication problems involving twoand three-digit numbers by one-digit numbers. The transition from multiplication by a one-digit number to that by a two-digit number is often assumed to be trivial.