Dear Mathematicians,

We’ve learned a lot of new strategies for multiplying and dividing numbers. The important thing to remember is that these strategies aren’t only so you can quickly and accurately arrive at the correct answer. When learning these strategies, they might seem confusing and awkward. But over time you’ll begin to understand the concepts behind them, and you’ll find yourself using them to solve problems mentally.

We want you to learn to think about numbers in deep ways. We want you to understand how numbers and operations work, so you can use numbers to solve more complex problems in the future.

Math isn’t really about numbers. It’s about thinking in patterns. Numbers just happen to be a useful tool we use to talk about and model these patterns.

Sincerely,

Mr. H