In IM Grade 3, students learned about multiplication and learned to find products within 100. Earlier in this course, students identified factors and multiples, performed multiplicative comparison with whole numbers and fractions, and used the structure of base-ten numbers and properties of operations to find multiples of 10, 100, 1,000, and so on.

This lesson is the first in a series focused on finding whole-number products beyond 100. Students reason about equal-group situations involving one-digit and two-digit numbers in any way that makes sense to them. In the first activity, students work with an array of objects to build on a familiar representation. In the second activity, no visual representation is provided. Students may find products by creating arrays or diagrams, decomposing a factor into smaller numbers or place value, and using their understanding of properties of operations.