Ms. Walsh's 6th Grade Math

Which property is it?

Clues to recognize
Commutative Property of Addition and Commutative Property of Multiplication:

1. The order of the numbers on one side of the equals sign is different than the order of the numbers on the other side of the equals sign.

The numbers are flip-flopped.

Clues to recognize
Associative Property of Addition and Associative Property of Multiplication:

1. There must be at least three numbers or letters being added or being multiplied together.

2. At least two of the numbers or letters must be in a group (inside parenthesis).

3. At least one of the numbers or letters inside the group (parenthesis) must be changed on one side of the equals sign from the other side of the equals sign.

4. The order of the numbers or letters stays the same on both sides of the equals sign.

Clues to recognize Identity Properties:
Identity Properties state that after you add (or multiply) one special number to any number in the world, the answer will be the same number you started with.

In addition, the only number you can add to any number in the world without changing it, is the amazing number zero.

In multiplication, the only number you can multiply any number in the world by without changing it, is the magic number one.

Additive Identity Property or the Identity Property of Addition

1. Zero was added to a number or letter.

Multiplicative Identity Property or the Identity Property of Multiplication

1. A number or letter was multiplied by 1.

Multiplicative Property of Zero

1. A number or letter was multiplied by 0.

No matter what number is multiplied by 0, the answer will always be 0.

That’s because 0 means nothing. When you have nothing, no matter how many times you have nothing, or how much of nothing you have; you will always have nothing.

1 pile of nothing = nothing. 27 piles of nothing = nothing. 500 piles of nothing = nothing.

So

1 X 0 = 0

27 x 0 = 0

500 x 0 = 0

You will need to know these properties by name. Recognize which property is which. And recognize when an equation uses one of the properties. Questions about properties appear on the benchmark and the FCAT tests.