Area and the distributive property
Use tiling to demonstrate the distributive property: the area of a rectangle with sides a and (b+c) equals a×b + a×c; use area models to represent the distributive property
Teaching approaches
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1 approach
If your child wants to work out 6 × 13 by splitting it into 6 × 10 and 6 × 3, can they draw a rectangle divided into two parts to show why that method works?
Use tiling to demonstrate the distributive property: the area of a rectangle with sides a and (b+c) equals a×b + a×c; use area models to represent the distributive property
Learning resources
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This concept
Check understanding
- Tile a 3×(4+2) rectangle and show it decomposes into 3×4 and 3×2
- Use an area model to compute 6×13 as 6×10 + 6×3
- Draw an area model showing 5×(7+3) = 5×7 + 5×3
“If your child wants to work out 6 × 13 by splitting it into 6 × 10 and 6 × 3, can they draw a rectangle divided into two parts to show why that method works?”
Curriculum record
- Type
- Representational
- Subject
- Mathematics
- Domain
- Measurement
- Age range
- Ages 8–9