In second grade we introduce the concept of how addition and multiplication are related.  One activity that you can do at home to help your child understand this concept is by playing a game called Build It. This is how you play....

- Roll one die.  That is the number of rows on a piece of graph paper.

- Roll the die a second time.  That is the number of columns.

-Write the multiplication problem inside the array.  The child counts the squares to determine the product.

- Then the second player plays.

- The arrays can be colored in.  In the end, the person with the most colored squares is the winner.

Here is an example of how the game is played.  Enjoy!