I watch a little boy for 20 minutes after school before his dad comes and gets him 3 days a week. He is having a difficult time with Division (like 12/4, and 20/5). And typical school system is bulldozing right over him, and he has no clue. I'm not a math wizard, and I know how to do it, but don't know how to explain my thinking to him. Do you know of any SHORT lessons on division I can find online (for free preferably)? I found alot of games, but you have to already know how to DO IT to actually play, and it's the KNOWING HOW that we are working on, and need help on. Can you help us?!?! My thoughts when I tried to explain it to him and impart my slim wisdom on the subject was I wish you know how to skip count. He's in 3rd grade. I learned to skip count from fun songs! Where are those?!?!
Give him tangable things to multiply and divide with. I found it was easiest to have them do both directions right at the same time, and using visuals always seems to help focus , then have him write out what he is doing to show the equations etc. I mean this way he can figure out how many mnms are in a bag or something like that. then divide them by each person in the house so they are all even etc.
yep, I was going to say have him do it with little objects (I like to use beans)..."you have 12 beans and need to divide evenly to 4 people." talk about it out loud, show him how with the beans, have him do it with the beans, then he writes it out. Souldn't be long until he grasps the idea. Then he needs to just memorize the facts (flashcards) it makes everything in the future so much easier if the facts are memorized
There's a good book..."And The Doorbell Rang"...? It's a picture book about having a dozen cookies for two kids, but then the doorbell rang, and they had to divide them by three. And it rang again, so they had to divide it by four. And it rang AGAIN, and they had to divide by 6. Then by 12. So everyone had just one cookie, and it rang AGAIN!!! But that was OK, because it was G'ma with more cookies....
We use popsicle sticks and cups. Give him 20 sticks and 4 cups. Put the cups in a line. Put one stick in each cup. When you get to the end of the line, start again until all the sticks are gone. Count the number of sticks in each cup. Keep practicing with different numbers of sticks and cups. Explain to him that dividing is sharing equally so everyone gets the same amount. Food is also a good thing to use. We have 6 cookies divided by 3 children equals 2 cookies each...
Send me a pm with your email address. I'll send you a bunch of skip counting songs that I recorded myself (2's through 15's) using familiar tunes. To visually teach multiplication & division (or adding and subtracting for that matter), write the 3 numbers necessary on 3 sheets of paper. Two kids will hold the smaller numbers, and an adult will hold the larger number. Line up, call out the numbers, and then in "musical chairs" fashion, move around, line up, and call out the numbers again. Like this: Line up 3 --- 4 --- 12 (You'd say "3 times 4 is 12," and then switch places with someone.) Line up 4 --- 3 --- 12 (You'd say "4 times 3 is 12," and then switch places with someone.) Line up 12 --- 3 --- 4 (You'd say "12 divided by 3 is 4," and then switch places with someone.) Line up 12 --- 4 --- 3 (You'd say "12 divided by 4 is 3," and then switch places with someone.) Line up 3 --- 12 --- 4 (You'd say "3 goes into 12, 4 times," and then switch places with someone.) Illustrate this one with the division bracket. Line up 4 --- 12 --- 3 (You'd say "4 goes into 12, 3 times," and then switch places with someone.) Illustrate this one with the division bracket. The numbers don't change. Only the positions change.
My first grader is in PS. He is learning division by not saying division. The teacher says "How may times does 4 go INTO 12". Sometimes the word 'division' can be tough to grasp. But they can still learn the concept. After they get 'into', then switch to 'divided by'.
I also like to teach "into" when first starting out. That's how it's taught in British schools, so I hear.
The poor guy just seems so lost! I wasn't sure how to explain it. I like the idea of teaching "into" rather than "division". Ill try that tomarrow! Thanks!
Cookies & friends! "If you have 3 kids and 3 cookies, how many cookies does each kid get?" "If you have 4 kids and 12 cookies, how many cookies does each kid get?"
There's an old joke about how the kid goes off to school and when he comes home they ask him, "Whad'ya do today?" And he says, "Today we learned about gazintas." "?????" "Oh, you know, 3 gazinta 12 four times, 4 gazinta 12 three times...."
khan academy is free and does the teaching. I have also used "how many fours are there in twelve" and for the first 3-4 weeks I made her draw dots and circles (12รท3=4 means three circles, putting a dot in each circle in turn). Drove my can do division and multiplication in his head hubby crazy, but it kept the idea of what she was doing in her head, so now she can divide(as long as she has memorized the tables; she can not remember the sevens....and hubby's, you know count by touchdowns and field goals did NOT help!)
get that chap over to the khanacademy.org pronto! here is the first video on division http://www.khanacademy.org/math/arithmetic/multiplication-division/v/division-1
Hey, Kahn Academy made the Columbus Dispatch the other day! I didn't read the article, but the picture showed some school kids using it on their computers!
OMG, Khan Acedemy is fabulous!!! I have found the greatest video about division!!! I'm going to show it to him today!!!
