Are you searching for and informative division strategies activity that's also engaging? In my personal experience there are not a lot of activities that cover the division strategies. Especially activities in which students are actually engaged.
What are division strategies you say? Well, Just in case you didn't know, division strategies are methods that students can use for solving division equations. For division facts 1-10 or 1-12 students can use equal groups, arrays, repeated subtraction, fact families, and skip counting.
Division Strategies: Equal Groups
Like multiplication strategies, the first division strategy that should be introduced is equal groups. Equal groups consist of equal groups of one object equally divided to create the divisor.
An easy way for students to use equal groups is to draw the amount of circles of the divisor. Then, students will place a dot in each circle until they reach the amount of the dividend. After all the student has reached the number of the dividend, count the number in the circles and that is the quotient. As shown below, the dividend is 36 and is divided equally into four groups of 9..
36 objects divided equally into 4 groups equals 4 groups of 9.
36 ÷ 4 = 9
Division Strategies: Arrays
When teaching students to use arrays, divide the rows in the array. In the array, the number of shapes is the dividend and the number in each row is the divisor. So, that means the number of rows is the quotient.
Relating what students know about using arrays to solve a multiplication problem can also help with understanding when using them for division.
12 objects divided equally into 4 different rows equals 3 on each row.
12 ÷ 3 = 4
Division Strategies: Repeated Subtraction
Repeated subtraction is the process of subtracting the divisor from dividend until you get to zero. The amount of times that the divisor is subtracted gives you the quotient. As you can see below, 4 is the divisor in this division sentence. So, 4 can be subtracted from 16 equally 4 times.
4 can be subtracted from 16 equally 4 times
16 ÷ 4 = 4
Fact Families a Division Strategy
Fact families are math facts or equations using related factors. If students know their multiplication facts, then they should be able to build on that knowledge and
If you can solve a multiplication sentence, you can solve a division sentence.
If you can solve 3 × 4 = 12 and 4 × 3 = 12,
then you can solve 12 ÷ 3 = 4 and 12 ÷ 4 = 3.
Skip Counting a Division Strategy
Skip counting is pretty straight forward. Students will skip count in a pattern using the divisor until they reach the dividend. The number of times that were skip counted using the divisor is the quotient.
As you can see in the flip book below, the skip counts were labeled with arrows for students to easily identify how many skip counts they take, but the multiples can also be counted themselves.
4, 8, ____, ____, ____, ____, 28
28 ÷ 4 = 7
Informative Division Strategies Flip Book
Flip books are a big hit! The division strategies flip book can be viewed in the photographs on this page.
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