How Many Dots?

Share this canvas with students. Individually, or in small groups, students find the total number of dots shown for different sets of dice. Copy a set of dice onto a new canvas to share them individually rather than all together on the same canvas.

After some work time, have students share the different methods they used to find the totals. Depending upon the age group, define their approaches in terms of properties of addition and multiplication (commutative, associative, and distributive properties).

For example:

Extension

Encourage students to make up similar questions of their own using the dice on Polypad.