Introduction

Explore why multiplication is commutative while division is not. Build on understanding of the difference between adjacent multiples to explore the distributive law, and apply it to derive multiplication facts.

Teaching points

• Teaching point 1: Multiplication is commutative; division is not commutative.
   
• Teaching point 2: Multiplication is distributive: multiplication facts can be derived from related known facts by partitioning one of the factors, and this can be interpreted as partitioning the number of groups; two-part problems that involve addition/subtraction of products with a common factor can be efficiently solved by applying the distributive law.
   
• Teaching point 3: The distributive law can be used to derive multiplication facts beyond known times tables.