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Lesson 4 of 5

Use knowledge of the distributive law to calculate products beyond known times tables

I can use knowledge of the distributive law to calculate products beyond known times tables efficiently.

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Lesson 4 of 5
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Use knowledge of the distributive law to calculate products beyond known times tables

I can use knowledge of the distributive law to calculate products beyond known times tables efficiently.

Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. If you know the 3 and 10 times tables you can work out the 13 times table.
  2. If you know the 10 times table you can work out the 20 times table.
  3. If you know the 5 and 8 times tables you can work out the 16 times table.

Keywords

  • Partition - Partitioning is the act of splitting an object or value down into smaller parts.

  • Distributive law - The distributive law says that multiplying a number by a group of numbers added together is the same as doing each multiplication separately.

  • Partial product - A partial product is any of the multiplication results we get leading up to an overall multiplication result.

Common misconception

Pupils may think that there is only one strategy for finding a solution and struggle to see that there is more than one way of partitioning a factor.

Spend some time discussing how many combinations of partitioned factor you could use with the distributive law and evaluate each combination for efficiency. This would be a worthwhile guided group task.

This lesson repeats a familiar structure to extend to knowledge beyond the times tables as set out in the curriculum. You might want to refer to previous learning for some children to support them in making connections.
Teacher tip

Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2025), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Lesson video

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Prior knowledge starter quiz

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6 Questions

Q1.
Which factor has been partitioned using the distributive law in the second expression below? 5 × 11 = 5 × 10 + 5 × 1

5
Correct answer: 11
8

Q2.
50 + 77 =

Correct Answer: 127

Q3.
57 + 65 =

Correct Answer: 122

Q4.
Which of the following expressions represents the total number of pencils if I have 6 pots of 5 pencils and 6 pots of 8 pencils?

6 × 6 + 5 × 8
Correct answer: 6 × 5 + 6 × 8
6 × 5 + 6 × 5
6 + 5 + 6 + 8

Q5.
Which of the following expressions is the array representing?

An image in a quiz
4 × 10 + 3 × 10
7 + 6 + 7 + 3
Correct answer: 7 × 6 + 7 × 3

Q6.
Double 81 is

Correct Answer: 162

Assessment exit quiz

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6 Questions

Q1.
Which of the following expressions is equivalent to 8 × 16?

8 × 11 + 8 × 4
Correct answer: 8 × 10 + 8 × 6
8 × 12 + 8 × 5

Q2.
What is the missing number in the array shown?

An image in a quiz
Correct Answer: 6, six

Q3.
Use the grid model to help solve 7 × 16 by finding two partial products and combining them. 7 × 16 =

An image in a quiz
Correct Answer: 112

Q4.
Solve 18 × 8 = using the distributive law.

Correct Answer: 144

Q5.
Solve 6 × 19 = using the distributive law.

Correct Answer: 114

Q6.
Which of the expressions below is not equal to 18 × 11?

10 × 11 + 8 × 11
Correct answer: 10 × 10 + 8 × 1
11 × 20 − 2 × 11
9 × 11 + 9 × 11
11 × 9 + 11 × 9

Lesson appears in

UnitMaths / Apply the distributive law to multiplication

Maths

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