Math Story : Introduction To Multiplication
Fun Time With Mr Multiply
Triho’s house is all messed up. He looks unhappy. But why?
Last night Atriho and his gang attacked his house to take revenge for past acts. Frustrated, they threw all the books and things all over the house.
“Oh no! This is terrible”, says Uncle Math looking at the mess and sad Triho. He decides to help him rearrange things and declutter the house. “Do not worry! I’ll help you set this up”, he says. “But, this will take so much time, I am already so tired and unmotivated”, says Triho.
“No fear, when I am here!” says Uncle Math. Triho immediately smiles and decides to work with him to clean the mess. “Here is Mr Multiply. It will help us clean all the mess today”, says Uncle Math. Mr Multiply? Is this a new gadget? Let us find out.
“Mr Multiply is my gadget that sorts things quickly by arranging them in equal groups. Let me show you”, he says and quickly presses the blue button pointing at the messed books.
Soon it arranges the books in groups of 3. “Wow! So fast. This is amazing”, says Triho. “Let me quickly count the books to check if I have all of them or has Atriho taken some!” he says and starts counting the books. “There are four groups of 3. So 3 and 3 make 6. Then 6 and 3 will make 9. And finally, 9 and 3 will make 12. Phew! I have all my 12 books”, he says.
Uncle Math smiles looking at this. He says, “What if I teach you a faster way to find out the total books Triho?” Of course! Triho wants to learn the faster way. Uncle Math takes Mr Multiply and rolls it in the air. “Mr Multiply, find the total number of books. Go!” he says while pressing the green button. “12” announces Mr Multiply.
“Wow! How did it calculate so fast? Is it some kind of trick?” questions Triho “Haha. Yes it is. So there are 4 groups of books. And each group has 3 books. So instead of counting the books in 3s four times (3+3+3+3), I can simply write 3 ✖ 4″, explains Uncle Math.
“This ✖ is called multiplication. Multiplication is a way of finding the total number of objects when they are grouped equally. We denote multiplication by ✖ and read it as times. So we read 3 ✖ 4 as three times four”, says Uncle Math.
“Oh! So basically multiplication is repeated addition only, but the faster way. 3+3+3+3 and 3 ✖ 4 will give me the same answer. This is so cool. Mr Multiply is a genius”, says Triho. He is thrilled.
They quickly clean the remaining mess. Suddenly they hear loud cries. Who is crying? What has happened?
Oh! Cirha is crying, but why? “Atriho group messed up my house as well. BooHoo!” she cries.
They rush to her house immediately.
Everybody is terrified looking at the mess. “Don’t worry! I know how to clean this mess”, says Triho holding Mr Multiply. He quickly rolls the gadget to sort the bottles and find the total bottles. “15” announces Mr Multiply. He quickly presses the blue button to sort the bottles.
Triho then presses the green button to find the total bottles. “15” announces Mr Multiply. Cirha is relieved. “How did it find the total number of bottles so quickly?” she questions. Triho explains the trick of Mr Multiply.
“Ohh! Since there are three groups of 5 bottles, I could simply count 5+5+5 which is 15 bottles. To solve it even more quickly, I could multiply three times 5 which is 5 X 3. Amazing! This is so useful”, says Cirha. She is thrilled and wants to use Mr Multiply to clean up the other mess.
They happily clean other mess. Cirha’s house looks neat and tidy now. Triho and Cirha play with Mr Multiply for some more time and have some fun. Uncle Math is proud of his students.
We Learnt That…
- Multiplication is a way of finding the total number of objects when they are grouped equally.
- Multiplication is repeated addition.
- We denote multiplication using ✖ and read it as times.
Let’s Discuss
- Who created the mess and why?
- Who is Mr Multiply? What is special about it?
- How did Mr Multiply find the total number of objects?
- What is multiplication?
- If you had to design your version of Mr Multiply, what would your gadget look like?
Experience the immersive video version of this captivating story by clicking the link below, and let the excitement come to life :
Please refer this guide by Fun2Do Labs for teaching multiplication to kids :
