Third graders at Varina Elementary have been studying multiplication in Math (SOL3.5), and they have been learning about Greece and Rome in History (SOL3.1). Today, students in Ms. Lanham’s class used StoryboardThat to create comics about Greece or Rome with a multiplication problem to solve. First, we reviewed the concept of multiplication. It is repeated addition of the same number, or it can be thought of as equal groups. Next, we discussed life in ancient Greece and Rome and brainstormed some possible multiplication problems. Farmers may have problems dealing with the number of grapes or olives they can grow in equal rows or put into jars. Shipbuilders may have to solve how many people can fit in each boat. Priests may have to figure out how many designs are on each column of the temple. Once we had our ideas, we went to StoryboardThat, and I showed them where they could find Greece and Rome backgrounds (Scenes > Historical, Rustic, or Outdoor). There are also Greece and Rome people in Characters > Classical Era. Finally, they added speech bubbles (Textables) to explain the multiplication problem in their comic. The first panel might explain how many items are in each group. The second panel might explain how many equal groups there are in all. The third panel could ask about the total number of items. We took screenshots of our comics and shared them in a Schoology discussion so we could solve each other’s problems. You can see them all here. If you’d like to see more examples, I also taught this lesson to Ms. Cathcart’s and Ms. Haley’s classes.
