Grade Levels: 3-5, 6-8, 9-12

*Click to open and customize your own copy of the Associative Property Lesson Plan.

This lesson accompanies the BrainPOP topic Associative Property, and supports the standard of applying the properties of operations to generate equivalent expressions. Students demonstrate understanding through a variety of projects.

Step 1: ACTIVATE PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

Display this expression: 

3 x 28

Ask students:

  • How could you rewrite this expression to help you to solve it? 

Step 2: BUILD KNOWLEDGE

  • Read the description on the Associative Property topic page.
  • Play the Movie, pausing to check for understanding. 
  • Have students read one of the following Related Reading articles: “Quirky Stuff” or “Plus/Minus.” Partner them with someone who read a different article to share what they learned with each other.

Step 3: APPLY and ASSESS 

Students take the Associative Property Quiz, applying essential literacy skills while demonstrating what they learned about this topic.

Step 4: DEEPEN and EXTEND

Students express what they learned about the associative property while practicing essential literacy skills with one or more of the following activities. Differentiate by assigning ones that meet individual student needs.

  • Make-a-Movie: Produce a tutorial explaining how to use the associative property to solve a multiplication problem. 
  • Make-a-Map: Create a concept map that uses the associative property to identify expressions equivalent to 32 x 15.
  • Creative Coding: Code a math problem that challenges the solver to use the associative property. 

More to Explore 

Monster School Bus:  Combine numbers in different ways in this interactive game. 

Related BrainPOP Topics: Deepen understanding of the properties of operations with these topics: Commutative Property and Distributive Property.

Teacher Support Resources:

Lesson Plan Common Core State Standards Alignments