Repeated Addition Background Information for Teachers, Parents and Caregivers

This page provides information to support educators and families in teaching K-3 students about repeated addition. It is designed to complement the Repeated Addition topic page on BrainPOP Jr.

This movie will introduce repeated addition as a way to explore multiplication. You may want to explore the Arrays movie in conjunction with this one to reinforce or extend the topic. We recommend doing plenty of hands-on activities with counters or other manipulatives to explore repeated addition. You may wish to pause the movie as you watch together and have children model examples in the movie with counters.

Review with children that when they multiply, they put equal groups together to find the total. We can solve multiplication number sentences by adding the same number over and over again. Show 3 groups of counters, with 5 counters in each group. What multiplication sentence shows how many counters there are all together? Help children come up with the number sentence 5 x 3 or 3 x 5. Be sure to explain that the order in which we multiply or add numbers does not matter. Then help them solve the sentence. Explain that we can add the number 5 a total of 3 times to find the answer: 5 + 5 + 5 = 15. We can skip-count by fives to get the answer: 5, 10, 15. We can also add the number 3 a total of 5 times to find the answer: 3 + 3 + 3 + 3 + 3 = 15. Repeat the activity with other groups of counters. You may want to model multiplication sentences such as 3 x 3, 6 x 3, and 5 x 4.

Introduce children to different strategies they can employ to solve multiplication sentences and repeated addition sentences. For example, show 4 groups of counters, with 10 counters in each group. How many counters are there in all? Have children come up with a multiplication sentence and a repeated addition sentence: 4 x 10 or 10 x 4 and 10 + 10 + 10 + 10. Solve the addition sentence together using different strategies. Children can skip-count by tens, use a hundred chart, or use a number line. Encourage children to use the strategy that works for them. Repeat the activity with different numbers. You may want to model sentences such as 6 + 6 + 6 + 6 + 6 or 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 2. Have children think about why multiplication is faster than adding a number over and over again.

Practice solving different number sentences and invite children to come up with their own story problems. Use counters to help children visualize and check their work.