Let’s determine which numbers are prime and which are composite

Andrea Urmston’s fourth grade class at CES is exploring factors and products in math.

Two fourth-grade girls sit at desks using multi-colored tiles to create a graph.

 

Students worked with a partner to make tile arrays, trying to determine whether numbers are prime or composite.

 

Two fourth-grade students use multi-colored tiles to create graphs.

 

Prime numbers are numbers that have only two factors: one and themselves. Numbers with more than two factors are composite numbers. For example, the first five prime numbers are 2, 3, 5, 7, and 11. They can only be divided by themselves and the number one. Composite numbers have more than two factors.

Two fourth-grade boys work at desks with multi-colored tiles, building a graph.

 

The number one is considered neither a prime nor a composite number! It is considered a unit number because it only has one factor, which is itself, not meeting the criteria for either prime or composite numbers. There is so much interesting learning being done!

Two fourth-grade girls work at desks creating a table with small multi-colored tiles.

Pine Bush Central School District
State Route 302, Pine Bush, NY 12566
Phone: (845) 744-2031
Fax: (845) 744-6189
Amy Brockner
Interim Superintendent of Schools
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