Weeks 4, 5, & 6 – Making Sense of Division

Making Sense of Division

“Reeling and Writhing of course, to begin with,’ the Mock Turtle replied, ‘and the different branches of arithmetic-ambition, distraction, uglification, and derision.”    ~  Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll

1.  Review Game: Multiplication Bingo

This game by Marilyn Burns has a clever twist. Students are allowed to create their own bingo boards, given that they can make a bingo by eliminating the products of 2 dice that will be rolled. Not only are they practicing multiplication facts, but by the 2nd or 3rd round, they are quickly avoiding primes!

Additional lessons coming soon

2.  Understanding Division: Back to Base 5

In our experience, students resist learning long division conceptually – either because they’ve already memorized and drilled the algorithm, or because they’ve tried and failed to memorize the algorithm. So we tried teaching it in another base instead. There’s no room for algorithms – they have to use blocks and place value concepts!

Day 1 Slides:  Division in Base Five
 

This online file allows students to divide by exchanging and creating equal groups. (Similar to Lesson 9 in Trimester 2, Week 8)   Students can either record their answers as they work, or submit the Google doc.

Screen Shot 2021-05-26 at 3.43.19 PM

There are blocks available for base 5, but these online blocks work fine.

On Day 2, we move towards mental math. Can students SEE the blocks move in their heads?  The process is the same, but the columns are now presented like a long division problem.

.

3.   Division: Transferring to the Abstract

 

These worksheets are editable – you can re-create more of them for individual students who need more time to work with this concept. The main idea is that base 10 works just like base five: you have to exchange blocks in order to pass them out fairly.

Practice Sheet #1 – Base Five   + Answer   Key
Practice Sheet #2 – Base Ten+ Answer   Key
 
 
%d bloggers like this: