Greatest Common Factor and Distributive Property - Scoffolded Practice

This file contains a practice sheet for 6th grade math students to factor a common factor which leads to a distributive property problem.  The practice is scaffold for students.  The first few problems give a step-by-step guide for students to complete the problem: 1) find the factors of a, 2) find the factors of b, 3) find the common factors of a and b, 4) find the greatest common factor of a and b, 5) fill in the blanks to factor the expression (write a distributive property problem).  This skill is a pre-requisite for expanding and simplifying expressions which leads to factoring, solving equations, solving word problems, and many more advanced topics.  This covers the standard:   Use the distributive property to express a sum of two whole numbers 1-100 with a common factor as a multiple of a sum of two whole numbers with no common factor.  The answer key is included.