silly ways to think about things! By jameza40

silly ways to think about things help kids remember!!!

when i intro. division with my students, i write both forms of the division problem on the overhead.

the first way, is in what i call the "division

house". - the "DEMANDING divisor" is knocking on the door - demanding that he gets his way and that the divident splits itself into the # of groups he is demanding. - the dividend is the longest of the 2 D words - and therefore the longest number in the divison problem. bc it is the biggest, it gets to live INSIDE the house! - the "crazy quotient" lives on the roof - and holds

all the answers.

then, we look at the same division problem written horizontally with the obelus (÷) and we discuss how they moved from the house their new positions.
- the dividend, because it is the greatest number, is always first! (we always put the greatest things ahead of everything else!)
- the demanding divisior follows the obelus - barking his orders to the equal sign.
- the quotient, of couse, that crazy guy, follows the equal sign because he has all the answers!

:) i know it sounds silly and my 4th graders laugh at me the whole time i'm putting on this little skit. but they get it! and they remember it! i always do a simple exit ticket assessment at the end of this first day intro. into division and it is 2 problems - 6 points.

i write the following on the overhead and they must write it in correct form on their index card (ie: exit ticket)

show me the 2 ways i can represent this problem:
divisor = 8
dividend = 72
quotient = 9


one last tip --- before doing ANY division problem, i always have my students "predict" how many digits are going to be in the quotient. if you don't do this - you MUST start! it is fantastic! they look at each digit of the dividend from front to back and ask "does my divisor go into ____" so for the above problem, they would say "does 8 go into 7?" no. so they'd put an X over the 7. then they'd move onto the next digit: "does 8 go into 72?" yes! so they'd put a box over the 2. how ever many boxes they have in their quotient is how many digits will be in their answer - AAAAAAAAAAND how many times they have to go through their division steps. this is a GREAT test taking strategy and sometimes can elimiate 1 if not 2 of the choices off the bat! :)


:) happy dividing!!!
- jess

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