Research shows that using strategies to learn basic facts is a much more effective way than just using rote memorization. The distributive property helps students break the multiplication problem in smaller parts that are easier to solve. Students can use known facts or friendly facts (x 2, x 5 and x 10) to help them solve unknown multiplication problems.

Have students use these task cards to write equations using the distributive property. This task cards can help students see three different representations of the distributive property: area models, arrays and equal groups.

The cards can also help students note that there are multiple ways to split a multiplication fact. For example, the 8 x 3 array can be split into (4 x 3) and (4 x 3) or it can be split it into (6 x 3) and (2 x 3).