Long Division~ It looks different

We have worked hard this month to develop an understanding of what division means in math. We made the connection between division and multiplication: "division is multiplication in disguise" is a phrase the kids will say. For example 24 divided by 8 = ____ can be thought of as 8 times ____=24 (how many groups of 8 can we make with 24?)  We took the next step and began dividing numbers that had remainders in the quotient. Understanding remainders as the amount that cannot be divided equally by the divisor. Students came up with a list of Notices about division:

• all even numbers are divisible by 2
• all numbers that have a 0 or 5 in the ones place are divisible by 5
• the remainder can never be larger than the divisor
• check division problems with multiplication:  
•  quotient X the divisor = the dividend
• If quotient has a remainder then: the quotient X the divisor + remainder = the dividend

We will continue to add to this list as we notice more! 

We began long division at the end of the week. This is a process where we are teaching the process with a understanding of place value. This is very different than how I was taught. It took years for me to really understand math through the lens of "understanding" and not just "doing" math with rules.

This takes time and patience for everyone. We are working with 2 digit dividends and 1 digit divisors using base 10 blocks to represent the problem and divide the number in parts for understanding.

Here is a good video I found that explains how we teach division with understanding! Hope this helps...I know this style of math has helped me truly understand math and not just the rules of math.

Understanding division Video