Today’s post about division is directed towards parents, to enhance their childs conception and processing in a practical way. Combined with their daily 15 minute math session on Smartick, I am sure they can perfectly understand division by the end of summer.
Like every learning process, especially when referring to children, it is convenient to use a straightforward, real situation to introduce a new concept. It is not difficult, you will see.
I am going to give a few examples and I invite you to write the other methods you use with your children in the comments.
Before we begin I will give you a very important piece of advice. It is important not to force the situation, it is better not to oblige or bribe them with promises or coerce them with threats… we will waste our tricks and we won´t obtain the desired result. My advice is to wait for another moment when they are totally willing.
Division as a Distribution of Quantity: Eating as a Family
In this case, our first situation will be the moment you sit down to eat as a family. It is perfect to work on the distribution of quantity in a smaller, but similar, way.
We should complement the process with questions like:
- “How many cannellonis can we each have if there are 5 of us and I have made 20? Serve the same amount on each plate.”
- “Grandpa said that he has made enough meatballs for everyone to have the same amount. There are 36 and tonight, 6 of us will eat dinner. How many meatballs will we each eat?”
- “There are 9 apricots in the fruit bowl for 3 siblings, how many can each eat?”
Division without Separating into Independent Units: Stops on a Trip
Conceptually we understand that, schematically, a trip is a ¨straight line¨ that joins two points. Therefore, present our children with the challenge of ¨dividing¨a trip between two or three stops, and let them be the ones who calculate how many miles should be between each one. This allows them to work on the concept of division without splitting things into separate units.
For example: “I thought that we should make two stops during the trip tomorrow. The total distance we are going to cover is 450 miles. Can you help me calculate the miles for each of the 3 segments that we have divided the trip into?”
Now it’s your turn, what other situations can you think of to practice division in a practical way?
I’ll remind you that on Smartick you can find many more exercises to practice division and all primary mathematics concepts, try it!
Learn More:
- Learn How to Do Division Word Problems with Decimals
- Division Problems: Different Models and Examples
- Difference between Mathematical Constants and Variables
- Practice Solving Division Problems
- Singapore Bar Models for Multiplication and Division
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