Tapping into a love of creation and the mathematics principle of modeling, students can create animated gifs or videos of the distributive property of multiplication. After teaching a lesson(s) on the distributive property students can work in small groups or independently to create.
Creating the Math:
- Open Keynote. Select a basic black of white template. Delete the boxes.
- Add text and type the equation you will model. (Do not include the answer, yet). Add. circles to make your array.
- Press and hold on the slide to duplicate. On the new slide, chance the circle colors to show the distribution. You can also move them to show the separate parts. (There are multiple pathways)
- Press and hold on the slide to duplicate. On the new slide, add drawings to write your distributed equations.
- Press and hold on the slide to duplicate. On the new slide, move your dots back together and combine your equations to show the final product.
Export Your Product:
- Select all the slides and apply the magic move transition. You can also add the line draw animation for extra pizzazz.
- Export as a movie or animated gif. Remember to include all the slides and save.
Personalization Opportunities:
Students can select their favorite colors and add audio over top to practice mathematical discourse.
Enrichment can be offered by
- increasing the magnitude of the numbers
- requiring the inclusion of another model
- creating real world context for the modeled equation
Attached is a student facing direction sheet to help them build independence.
#OPSProud #OPS_Kennedy
October 03, 2025 .
English
Thanks for sharing! I like to use a similar animation to show addition with 10 frames, or at the high school level, we can use this by even including using different shapes to model algebra tiles to show the distributive property.
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