Multiplication

Do you have toy cars. How many wheels does one car have. Four. What if you have two cars. That's a lot of wheels to count. One, two, three, four... five, six, seven, eight. That can take a while. What if you wanted to count them super, super fast. I can help. I am a secret trick for counting equal groups of things. I put them all together in a flash, like magic. I am Multiplication. I love helping you count fast.

Long, long, long ago, people started to see me everywhere they looked. They saw me in their gardens, with rows of bright red flowers. Two flowers, and two more flowers, and two more flowers. They saw me when they built tall towers with their soft wooden blocks. Three blocks, and three more blocks, and three more. Adding the same number again and again was so slow. 2 plus 2 plus 2. That took a long time to say. So they found me. I was their speedy shortcut. People in a sunny place called Babylonia even made special pictures of me on soft clay almost four thousand years ago. I helped them build big, strong houses and count all their yummy food.

I am still here to help you every day. I can help you figure out how many snacks to pack for your friends. If you and two friends each want two yummy crackers, I can help you find out how many to get so everyone is happy. I help you count all the colorful crayons when you have a few boxes. I'm here to help you build, share, and see how quickly fun things can grow. I make counting big groups easy and fun. What wonderful things will we count together today.