Oh! That's how that works!!!

OK, I have worked as a paraprofessional for many years of my life and it took a 4 minute YouTube video for me to understand lattice multiplication? Don't get me wrong, I haven't been teaching or helping kids wrong, I just haven't ever done it. I have always done it the "old-fashioned" way and just never really needed to learn the lattice way. I admit that I am a bit behind the times, but hey, what do you expect, I am not a young pup anymore. (I am and will always be 29!)

The video I am speaking of is a lattice multiplication step-by-step approach . Take a few minutes to check it out, it is definitely worth your time.

Now that I know how the lattice multiplication works, I absolutely think it is almost as good as sliced bread!(That genius needs some credit, because sliced bread is amazing!) I got a little worried when the man on the video said that he was going to multiply a number with decimals! Yikes! But it makes complete sense now. I love that he added the mention about taking the decimals and meeting them up, and then sliding them down the slide! For real, what kid doesn't like to think of playground equipment during math?

What it really comes down to is that I feel that I learned a pretty cool concept today. Not only did I finally learn how to do lattice multiplication with whole numbers and decimals, I also realized that I really need to invent something. Since sliced bread is already discovered I may need to think about this one for awhile. Stay tuned and I will let you know what great invention I dream up! So until next time, keep on multiplying!