3rd Grade Greek Multiplication
Third graders in Ms. Dickey’s class at Davis Elementary have been learning about the ancient Greeks in social studies (SOL3.4) and multiplication in math (SOL3.2). So today we made Greek multiplication problems using Pixie and Keynote. First the students opened a blank Pixie document and used a combination of the painting tools and stickers to create a picture of one group of items that would be found in ancient Greece: like a ship with 7 jugs of olive oil, or a row of 8 grapevines, or a Medusa with 6 snakes coming out of her head. We exported the pictures as PNG files with transparency (so there wasn’t a background). Then we opened a blank Keynote, added a title and our name, and dragged the PNG file onto the slide. We shrunk it down and copied and pasted it as many times as we needed. Next the students made text boxes to write out the multiplication problem and its solution. I showed them how to click on each object in the order they want it to appear and add a build in animation using the Inspector. Finally the students recorded their voices telling about the multiplication problem and skip counting until they got their answer. I exported the Keynotes as QuickTime videos and posted them on this page.