The author investigates elementary school students' performance when solving selected open distributive sentences in relation to three factors (Open Sentence Type, Context, Number Size) and identifies and classifies solution methods attempted by students and students' errors in performance. Eighty fifth-grade students participated in the investigation. Each student was presented four open distributive sentences in one of four contexts with each sentence reflecting a different combination of four possible combinations of two levels of Open Sentence Type and two levels of Number Size. Performance of each student during an individual interview provided data via audio-taped verbal responses, interview tests, and a record of numerical solutions found for each sentence. Analysis of variance tests determined significance levels of the various independent variable effects. The author notes that the elementary school students' lack of using the distributive principle in this investigation echos the results of previous studies. He suggests that postponement of formal introduction to the distributive principle until students reach a higher level of mathematical maturity may be a wise decision and would also create implications for change in the rationalization and introduction of multiplication algorithms in the elementary schools. (Author/MN)