MULTIPLICATION/DIVISION HULA

Georgia Standards

South Carolina Standards

Key Vocabulary

Materials

5-10 hula hoops

Instructional Design

Opening/Activating Strategy

• Start with a general physical warm-up to get the students' bodies ready. Use exercises such as:
  • Stretching: Stretch all major muscle groups.
  • Shaking Out Limbs: Shake out arms, legs, and the whole body to release tension.
  • Energy Passes: Stand in a circle and pass a clap or a simple motion around to build group focus and energy.
• Ask students what some of their favorite stories are–movies, TV shows, books, etc. Ask students to share what they like about them–the characters, story, etc.?
  • Tell students that today, they will be looking at math like a story with characters, a setting, a problem, and a solution.

Work Session

• Begin by creating a vocabulary movement for each mathematical symbol that students will use in the lesson. Change the pitch of your voice every time that you say the word.
  • Example vocabulary movements:
    • “=” equals to (forearms horizontal and parallel in front of body)
    • “+” to add to (forearms in a cross in front of body)
    • “-” to take away (right forearm in front of body and swipes down right)
    • “x” groups of (forearms in an ‘x’ in front of body)
    • “÷” to break apart (forearms together with balled fists on either side of middle, then fists separate to the side)
  • Show each movement and ask students to guess which part of the math story you are acting out. Once the students guess, draw the operation on the board.
  • Practice making the movements and saying their meanings with students.
• Introducing “Math Lands”:
  • Tell students that there are different “lands” or settings in which the math stories take place.
  • First, there is Addition Land, where we add to and take away from/subtract. Only addition and subtraction take place in Addition Land.
    • Characters in Addition Land:
      • Sum – Answer to the addition problem
      • Difference – Answer to the subtraction problem
  • There is also Multiplication Land, where we count groups of numbers and also break numbers apart into groups/division.
    • Characters in Multiplication Land:
      • Quotient – Answer to the division problem
      • Product – Answer to the multiplication problem
      • Dividend – The number that is being divided first
      • Divisor – The number going into the dividend; it breaks up the number
  • Tell students that division does not live in Addition Land and subtraction does not live in Multiplication Land.
  • Now, introduce the other characters that can go to both Addition and Multiplication land, zero and one. Tell students that they will act differently depending on which land they go to.
    • ZERO:
      • Zero is the "nobody" of Addition Land because when it is added to or taken away from a number, the number doesn't even think anything happened. It just shrugs and walks away unchanged.
      • But, if zero goes to Multiplication Land, look out! It feels very powerful as it annihilates anybody it comes into contact with! Any number multiplied by “0” equals zero!
    • ONE:
      • On the other hand, one is the "nobody" of Multiplication Land. It doesn't have any effect on anyone in this land. It’s kind of like zero in Addition Land. 5 x 1 = 5 , 100 x 1 = 100,  5 ÷ 1 = 5
      • Yet, when one goes over to Addition Land, it can cause numbers to subtly change. 100 + 1 = 101, 5000 + 1 = 5001
• Let’s live in Multiplication Land today and tell some stories from there. In this land we will talk about multiplication (groups of) and division (break apart into groups).
  • Tell students that division and multiplication are like distant relatives who live in the same land.
  • Division is the inverse or opposite of multiplication. We are breaking a number apart into groups when we divide, and we are grouping numbers when we multiply.
  • Let’s look at how they are related by looking at a math story (use the hula hoops to demo the story):
    • 5 x 2 = 10: If we have two hula hoops on the floor, and five students in each hula hoop, how many students do we have in total? Inversely, if we have ten students and two hula hoops, how many students will stand in each hula hoop? 10 ÷ 2 = 5
    • Place three hula hoops on the floor, ask six students to divide themselves equally into the three hula hoops. Write out the problem on the board: 6 ÷ 3 = 2. Ask students how it could be written as a multiplication problem: 3 x 2 = 6. Continue to model division using this method.
    • Increase the number of hula hoops and students; for example, instruct students to evenly place 20 students into five hula hoops.
    • Write out the equations as students act them out.
  • Add interest and energy to the problems by bringing them to life through word problems. Have students physically embody/act out the objects or people in the word problems.
    • Example multiplication problems to enact:
      • There are three houses. Each house has four people living in it. How many people live in the houses? 3 x 4 = 12
      • If you have two boxes and put five apples in each. How many apples do you have? 2 x 5 = 10
      • There are four spider webs and each spider web has two spiders in it. How many spiders are there in total? 4 x 2 = 8
      • A tree at the park has four branches. Each branch has five birds on it. How many birds are in the tree? 4 x 5 = 20
    • Example division problems to enact:
      • Jerry picks twelve flowers from her garden. She wants to put the same number of flowers in each of the three vases. How many flowers should she put in each vase? Lay out three hula hoops/vases and place four flowers/students in each hula hoop/vase. 12 ÷ 3 = 4
      • Barry has eight spiders to divide equally in four jars. How many spiders will be in each jar? 8 ÷ 4 = 2
• Divide students into small groups. In their groups, students should write their own “math story” as both a multiplication and division problem. Students will need to determine what the hula hoops will represent and what object will be put into each hula hoop. Students should practice acting out their math story and using their bodies to become the characters in their stories.

Closing Reflection

• Students will perform their “math stories” for their classmates. Discuss appropriate audience participation and etiquette prior to performances.
• After each performance, the audience should be able to determine what the “math story” is showing in terms of the mathematical equation.
• The performing group should then read/show their “math story” to class.

Assessments

Formative

Teachers will assess students’ understanding of the content throughout the lesson by observing students’ participation in the activator, ability to use their bodies to make mathematical symbols, engagement in class discussion, participation in acting out the “math stories”, and collaboration with their groups to create and perform a “math story”.

Summative

CHECKLIST

• Students can accurately solve and write “math stories”/multiplication and division problems using hula hoop visualization.
• Students can create and perform their own “math stories”/multiplication and division problems using acting.

DIFFERENTIATION 

*This integrated lesson provides differentiated ideas and activities for educators that are aligned to a sampling of standards. Standards referenced at the time of publishing may differ based on each state’s adoption of new standards.

Ideas contributed by: Susie Spear Purcell. Updated by Katy Betts.

Revised and copyright: July 2024 @ ArtsNOW