Cluster 2: Explore multiplicative comparison, area and perimeter, factors, and multiples

In third grade, students focus on equal group and array multiplicative situations. In fourth grade, multiplicative thinking is expanded to include multiplicative comparison. Multiplicative comparison problems describe the relationship between two quantities, in which one is a multiple of the other (times as many, times more/less than). Data and scaled bar graphs from the previous cluster can be used as a context to represent and discuss both additive and multiplicative comparisons and to
help students distinguish between the two. In fourth grade, students continue to develop the concept of area based on the  array model and use that model to explore factors and multiples.  (See About this Cluster and the Unpacking Document below for more details on this cluster.)