How to Make an Organized Math Table for Fourth Grade

Throughout elementary school, students are introduced to specific problem-solving strategies such as making a list, guess and check, and making a table. Making a table is a strategy used to organize data and find a solution. According to Teacher Vision.com, an organized table "allows students to discover relationships and patterns among data." Teachers should model the process of making a table using a whiteboard or projector and have each student copy it into his notebook using a ruler and pencil.

Instructions

1

Ask the student what he wants to know. A student might be faced with the following story problem: "Sam goes to the store to buy some candy. One candy costs five cents. What is the cost for 10 candies?" In this case, the student wants to know the cost of 10 candies.

2

Determine the number of columns required for the table. For the above example, the table will require one column titled "number of candies" and one column titled "cost", equaling two columns in all.

3

Have students draw the table using a ruler and pencil. In this example, the table should consist of two columns with the appropriate titles at the top of each.

4

Input the known information. In this story problem, the student is told that one candy costs five cents. Therefore, write a "1" in the "number of candies" column and "5 cents" in the "cost" column.

5

Calculate the cost for two candies and fill in the appropriate information beneath the first row of numbers. In this case a "2" should be written in the "number of candies" column and "10 cents" in the "cost" column. Proceed in a similar fashion for the third and fourth rows.

6

Ask the student if she sees a pattern forming. In this case, the student should notice that the "cost" column is increasing by fives. Additionally, she should realize that the "number of candies" can be multiplied by five to get the "cost."

7

Use the information in the table to find the solution to the problem. In this example, calculate the cost for 10 candies without filling out the cost for five, six, seven, eight or nine candies. This can be done by multiplying 10 times five to get a cost of 50 cents.