In previous lessons students used the standard algorithm to find products of three-digit and two-digit numbers including products with newly composed units. In this lesson, students continue to find products, building fluency in situations, with any number of newly composed units. Students learn a center game in which they try to make the greatest product, using five digits which they successively select. Students also make a product that is as close as possible to a given number. This offers a new challenge: Rather than putting the greatest digits in the greatest place values, students will need to experiment or reflect about how each digit in the numbers influences the value of the product. This lesson provides an opportunity for teachers to observe students as they use the standard algorithm, and offer to support, as needed.

As you support students as they continue to practice and understand the standard algorithm for multiplying whole numbers, in what ways will you leverage the diagrams and the partial-products algorithms from early lessons to help students use the standard algorithm fluently?