Max Maths, Year 5, Work Book, Using factors to multiply

In the Max Maths Year 5 Workbook, Practice 5 invites students to apply their understanding of factors to perform multiplication tasks. This exercise requires students to break down numbers into their factors, which simplifies the multiplication process and helps to ensure accuracy in their calculations. By decomposing numbers into smaller, more manageable parts, students can carry out multiplication more easily, especially when dealing with larger numbers.

For example, to solve the multiplication problem 12 × 16, students can use the factors of 12 (such as 3 and 4) and the factors of 16 (such as 4 and 4) to make the calculation simpler. Similarly, when multiplying 18 by 14, students can look for common factors of 18 (such as 2 and 9) and 14 (such as 2 and 7) to streamline the process. This technique is applied across a series of problems, including multiplying 24 by 12, 16 by 8, 22 by 6, and 8 by 12. By showing their working, students demonstrate their understanding of factors and how these can be used strategically to multiply numbers effectively.