It seems like a shockingly complex word problem for kindergarten: There are four spaceships. Each spaceship will hold two aliens. How many aliens can ride?
Initially, it looks like multiplication. But that word is never used, nor is the equation 4x2. Indeed, multiplication is not expected or even taught in kindergarten — and really, it's not set up as a multiplication problem.
Instead, problem like this are often used to teach "number sense," or the ability to understand how numbers work and relate to each other. In kindergarten, students "compose" or "decompose" a number; they learn to put it together, or break it into parts.
"That's the interesting thing about the standards, they're growing these concepts," Gard said. "The skills build. What you saw in kindergarten is building to addition and subtraction strategies for first grade."
In teacher Susan Berry's kindergarten classroom, she starts with the basics and asks students about the question itself. "What do they want to know?" she says.
They act out the answer, and little arms shoot up when Berry asks for volunteers. Students suggest how to model the question, and soon there are two aliens in each make-believe space ship, which are parked in each corner of the room.
One of the aliens, Maklane Caren, raises his hand first. "There are eight aliens," he says. "Four on this side and four on this side.