Contexts for Learning Mathematics: Muffles Truffles: Multiplication and Division with the Array (Gr. 3-5)

A chocolatier's efforts to cope with the operational challenges of running a truffle shop (counting, pricing, and labeling assorted boxes of chocolates) in Muffles' Truffles introduces students to the open array as a model for multiplication and division. A series of investigations explores and applies place value—the multiplicative structure of our base—ten system and quotative division-and big ideas in multiplication, including the distributive, associative, and commutative properties.