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Have you ever wondered how to teach distributive property to 6th graders?
Use this artistic lesson plan to teach your 6th grade students about the distributive property. Students will learn the material with artistic, interactive guided notes (similar to sketch notes), check for understanding, and practice with a worksheet and color by number.
The lesson concludes with the real-life application of the distributive property for grocery shopping and recipes. Students learn to apply the distributive property to easily scale recipes, calculate discounts, and compare prices at the grocery store.
- Learning Objectives
After this lesson, students will be able to:
- Define the distributive property
- Explain why the distributive property works
- Apply the distributive property and combining like terms to simplify expressions
- Understand real-life applications of the distributive property, such as to scale recipes and calculate discounts
Note: This lesson covers positive integer coefficients only. See extensions for harder practice!
- Prerequisites
Before this lesson, students should be familiar with:
- Know how to combine like terms in expressions
- Basic multiplication and division skills
- Understanding of the concepts of factors and multiples
- Basic understanding of fractions and decimals (optional, but helpful)
- Materials
- Pencils
- Colored pencils or markers
- Distributive Property Guided Notes (positive coefficients only!)
- Key Vocabulary
- Distributive Property
- Expressions
- Factors
- Terms
Get the Materials
Buy on TPT →Procedure
Introduction
- As a hook, ask students why understanding math concepts like the distributive property can be helpful in real-life situations, such as grocery shopping and scaling recipes. Refer to the last page of the guided notes as well as the FAQs below for ideas.
- Use the guided notes to introduce the distributive property. These guided notes contain positive integer coefficients only. Therefore, students do not need to have mastered negative integer rules to learn this lesson. Walk through the key points of the topic of the guided notes to teach. Students will need to know how to combine like terms to simplify expressions further. If they have not yet learned combining like terms, or need a review, consider using my Combining Like Terms lesson plan.
- Refer to the FAQ below for a walk through on this, as well as ideas on how to respond to common student questions.
- Check for Understanding. Have students walk through the “You Try!” section. Call on students to talk through their answers, potentially on the whiteboard or projector. Based on student responses, reteach concepts that students need extra help with.
- Use the guided notes to introduce how to simplify expressions using the distributive property and combining like terms. Walk through the key points of the topic of the guided notes to teach. Refer to the FAQ below for a walk through on this, as well as ideas on how to respond to common student questions.
- Check for Understanding. Have students walk through the “You Try!” section. Call on students to talk through their answers, potentially on the whiteboard or projector. Based on student responses, reteach concepts that students need extra help with.
Practice
- Have students practice the distributive property and combining like terms using the worksheet activity provided. Walk around to answer student questions.
- Fast finishers can dive into the color by number activity for extra practice. You can assign it as homework for the remainder of the class.
Real-Life Application
- Bring the class back together, and introduce the concept of scaling recipes using the distributive property.
- Explain that the distributive property can be used to scale recipes up or down, depending on how many servings are needed. Give an example recipe and demonstrate how to use the distributive property to scale it up or down.
- Refer to the FAQ for more ideas on how to teach it!
Extensions
Additional Self-Checking Digital Practice
If you’re looking for digital practice for the distributive property, try my Pixel Art activities in Google Sheets. Every answer is automatically checked, and correct answers unlock parts of a mystery picture. There’s different versions depending on your students' needs:
- Positive integer only. This is ideal for students who haven’t mastered negative integer rules yet. It has a heart theme perfect for Valentine's Day.
- Positive & negative integers. This is ideal for students who have already mastered negative integer rules. It has a winter theme perfect for the holidays.
Additional Print Practice
A fun, no-prep way to practice the distributive property is Doodle & Color by Number — it's a fresh take on color by number or color by code. It includes 3 levels of practice, and there's different versions depending on your students' needs:
- Positive integers only. This is ideal for students who haven’t mastered negative integer rules yet. It has a heart theme perfect for Valentine's Day.
- Positive & negative integers. This is ideal for students who have already mastered negative integer rules, and it comes in a desert theme perfect year-round!