Want to strengthen your multiplication and division skills? Now you can, with this engaging class led by a certified teacher! These essential operations are some of the most important math skills you will learn is school, but too often kids are just taught the tricks and short-cuts without building a conceptual understanding of what is actually happening to the numbers. This makes it hard for many learners to grow more complex math skills and it makes it more difficult to catch mistakes. Using a variety of modalities, from discussion to movement to presentations, in a light and low-pressure atmosphere, learners will first a strong understanding of what it means to multiply and divide. Through exploratory problem solving, kids will gain confidence in their skills and be able to share their knowledge with others. We will also see how the conceptual foundation shows up in the algorithms, or computational work. Learners will walk away with a deeper understanding of why stacking to multiply one digit at a time and long division or partial quotient give you the correct answer and how to troubleshoot when something goes wrong. 
Week 1: Introduce ourselves to our fellow mathematicians. Learn about the difference between conceptual and computational skills. Explore multiplication from a conceptual point of view using estimation, area model, breaking numbers apart and other visuals.
Week 2: Review conceptual multiplication strategies and learn/practice the multiplication algorithm that is often used for computational work (multiplying one place value at a time and "carrying over")
Week 3: Explore division from a conceptual perspective using estimation, partial quotient and visual representations. 
Week 4: Review conceptual division strategies and learn/practice the division algorithm (long division). Celebration of our achievements with some games.