Year 4 Understand and represent multiplicative structures worksheet

“Groups and group size” is free to print, with no account. It is the first sheet in the Year 4 maths unit “Understand and represent multiplicative structures”, for children aged 8 to 9, and takes about 20 minutes.

Print it on A4. The child's pages come first; the answers, and what each wrong answer tells you, are on the grown-up page that follows. Week 16 of the year, 5 sheets in the unit.

Free sample · answers on the last page

Groups and group size

Name: ____________ · Date: ____________
Year 4 · Maths · about 20 minutes
Answers are on the grown-up page

Today I can work out what each factor stands for, using bags and apples.

A Look back3 min

1.
3 rows of 2 dots. 3 × 2 =
2.
Count on in fours. What comes after 8?
3.
5 + 5 + 5 =

B Watch me, then you4 min

Eggs go into trays. Each tray holds 3 eggs. There are 4 trays.

Watch me

4 trays, so 4 is the number of groups.

3 eggs in each tray, so 3 is the group size.

4 × 3 = 12 eggs in all.

Now you

1.
Leo has 2 sheets. He puts 5 stickers on each sheet. How many stickers?

C Your turn5 min

1.
3 bags hold 4 apples each. 3 × 4 =
2.
4 bags hold 3 apples each. 4 × 3 =
3.
Each row in the picture is one bag. In 5 × 2 = 10, what does the 5 count? Circle the answer.
how many bagshow many apples in each bag
4.
6 bags hold 2 apples each. 6 × 2 =

Say it out loud: Three answers were 12. What changed when the number of bags changed?

D Spot the mistake2 min

Each row in the picture is one bag. Mia says: “The picture shows 3 × 4 = 12, so there are 4 bags with 3 apples in each.”

1.
How many bags are there really?

E Think deeper4 min

1.
12 apples are shared into equal bags. Write every number of bags that works.

How did it feel?

I can do it Nearly Not yet

For the grown-up

Groups and group size · 2 minutes to read

Answers, and what a wrong one tells you

A

1. 6

2. 12

3. 15

B

1. 10 If your child writes 7, they added 2 and 5. Ask how many sheets there are, then how many stickers go on each one.

C

1. 12 If your child writes 7, they added 3 and 4. Ask: how many apples are in the first bag, then how many bags are there?

2. 12 If your child writes 7, they added the two numbers. Ask them to count the bags, then the apples in one bag.

3. how many bags If your child circles the apples in each bag, ask them to point to the 5 rows. Then ask how many apples sit in one row.

4. 12 If your child writes 8, they may have counted 6 + 2. Ask them to count the bags and the apples in each bag, then multiply.

D

1. 3 If your child writes 4, they read the apples in each bag as the bags. Count the rows: each row is one bag, so 12 ÷ 4 gives 3 bags.

E

1. 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 12 If your child leaves out 1 or 12, ask: can all 12 apples go in one bag? Can each bag hold just one apple?

Words to use

Say“Which number counts the bags, and which number counts what is in each bag?”

Instead of“Tell them 4 × 3 and 3 × 4 mean exactly the same thing.”

After the sheet

Put 12 buttons into 3 cups with 4 in each. Tip them out and make 4 cups with 3 in each. Say which number counts the cups.

Tick what your child got right in StudyDen. Anything missed comes back in a later Look back box, so there's no need to redo the sheet.

The rest of this unit

4 more sheets come with a StudyDen plan, in teaching order:

Numbers in a story(with a plan)
Zero: the special number(with a plan)
Splitting a factor(with a plan)
Choosing which factor to split(with a plan)

Every Year 4 maths worksheet

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