Introducing Division

Have extra Halloween candy left over? Have some stuffed animals or action figures in your classroom? Are your students bringing American Girl Dolls to school, or other stuffed animals as a class reward? Any extra reading buddies?

Use them for a concrete example of division! I gave my students sample problems to model. For example, this group had 30 pieces of candy. Students equally divided up the candy and figured out that Arthur, D.W. and Francine each got 10 pieces of candy.

Most of my students grasped this concept quickly, so they worked together to make up their own division word problems. They quickly learned the connection with multiplication and division!

Another way that I introduce division to my students is to use white boards and base ten blocks or other manipulatives.  25 units in base ten blocks to create the dividend and  5 rubber bands to create the divisor. Students can “see” that they can put 5 units equally into each group. You can also use this method to teach remainders with division problems!

One last idea! Do you have hula hoops, pattern blocks or another manipulatives? Students can  demonstrate their understanding of division by making number sentences with these materials. For example, 24 hexagons divided by 2 hula hoops equals 12 hexagons per hoop!

After introducing division in a few hands-on lessons, students were then ready to practice by completing a worksheet. We then moved onto using our “Division Doctor” theme to master those division facts. Slow and steady wins the race!

Do you have any fun, hands-on ways to introduce division or multiplication??

Have a great day!