I made up another silly story to help my kids understand and remember the distributive law. This could be such an abstract concept for little ones, but I think telling them stories, showing them pictures and singing songs really makes a difference and helps them understand it and retain it.
My kids enjoy playing with the little pieces after we cut them apart. We keep them in a little bag for a few days so we can review the formula over and over. At the end of the week we finally glue the pieces on the boxes and I have them recite the formula back to me.
Here’s the song we use to help us remember the formula:
Click below to download the file.
Hi wisenest. I love your work! I found something on pinterest to try and show the distributive law. I will try it out with my co-op’s K-2nd graders. It is using an area model of a rectangle…say 4 x 6 = 24. Then you split the width. So now you have 4 (3 +3) = 24
Then use the distributive law to show (4×3) +(4×3)=24. I use a piece of graph paper. You can make it into a game with dice or cards even. Just a thought.