Teaching Resource
Multiplication and Division - Which Operation Is It? – Interactive PowerPoint
An interactive 64-slide PowerPoint to use when learning to solve multiplication and division word problems.
Use this interactive PowerPoint presentation when teaching your students how to differentiate between and solve multiplication and division word problems. Twenty problems are included in the PowerPoint, and the last seven problems are multi-step word problems. This powerpoint works great as a math warm-up each day during your multiplication and division unit, as a math review before an upcoming test over the unit, or as a review before starting your multiplication and division unit in 4th grade.
Students will read a word problem and must first determine which operation they use to solve the problem. For the multi-step word problems, the students will be prompted to determine the first operation they will use.
Students choose the correct answer from the options of multiplication or division. When they select the incorrect answer, the PowerPoint will ‘buzz’. When they select the correct answer, the PowerPoint will ‘chime’ and transition to the next slide.
Use the answer slides for student sharing and additional learning opportunities. It is anticipated that there is more than one way to solve each question. Students may use a different strategy to solve the question than demonstrated in the PowerPoint.
To activate the interactive functions on this PowerPoint, ensure that you have ‘enabled editing’ and are viewing the PowerPoint as a ‘Slide Show’.
Add new slides and create your own class questions and answers using the editable function on the PowerPoint.
Please note:
- we have included a PDF version of this resource, however it will not include the interactive functions that the PowerPoint version does.
- this resource is a large file and may take extra time to download.
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Common Core Curriculum alignment
- CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.2.OA.C.4
Use addition to find the total number of objects arranged in rectangular arrays with up to 5 rows and up to 5 columns; write an equation to express the total as a sum of equal addends.
- CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.OA.A.1
Interpret products of whole numbers, e.g., interpret 5 × 7 as the total number of objects in 5 groups of 7 objects each. For example, describe a context in which a total number of objects can be expressed as 5 × 7.
- CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.OA.A.2
Interpret whole-number quotients of whole numbers, e.g., interpret 56 ÷ 8 as the number of objects in each share when 56 objects are partitioned equally into 8 shares, or as a number of shares when 56 objects are partitioned into equal shares of 8 o...
- CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.OA.A.3
Use multiplication and division within 100 to solve word problems in situations involving equal groups, arrays, and measurement quantities, e.g., by using drawings and equations with a symbol for the unknown number to represent the problem.
- CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.OA.A.4
Determine the unknown whole number in a multiplication or division equation relating three whole numbers. For example, determine the unknown number that makes the equation true in each of the equations 8 × ? = 48, 5 = _ ÷ 3, 6 × 6 = ?
- CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.OA.B.5
Apply properties of operations as strategies to multiply and divide.2 Examples: If 6 × 4 = 24 is known, then 4 × 6 = 24 is also known. (Commutative property of multiplication.) 3 × 5 × 2 can be found by 3 × 5 = 15, then 15 × 2 = 30, or by 5 × ...
- CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.OA.B.6
Understand division as an unknown-factor problem. For example, find 32 ÷ 8 by finding the number that makes 32 when multiplied by 8.
- CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.OA.C.7
Fluently multiply and divide within 100, using strategies such as the relationship between multiplication and division (e.g., knowing that 8 × 5 = 40, one knows 40 ÷ 5 = 8) or properties of operations. By the end of Grade 3, know from memory all pr...
- CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.NBT.A.3
Multiply one-digit whole numbers by multiples of 10 in the range 10-90 (e.g., 9 × 80, 5 × 60) using strategies based on place value and properties of operations.
- CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.4.OA.A.2
Multiply or divide to solve word problems involving multiplicative comparison, e.g., by using drawings and equations with a symbol for the unknown number to represent the problem, distinguishing multiplicative comparison from additive comparison.

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Resource Updates
The word problems within this powerpoint have been modified.
Change by Natalie May 29th, 2020
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