Division can sometimes be an intimidating topic to work on with your child. A lot of times in school, this is the first major struggle with math that my kids faced. Division is something that will be a building block for the rest of your child's math learning. It is very important that your child find a strategy that works for them.
3rd Grade Texas Standard: "The student is expected to: represent and solve one step and two step multiplication and division problems within 100 using arrays, strip diagrams, and equations.
TEKS can be found at this website.
http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/rules/tac/chapter111/ch111a.html#111.5
3rd Grade Common Core Standards: CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.OA.A.3
Use multiplication and division within 100 to solve word problems in situations involving equal groups, arrays, and measurement quantities.
Common Core Standards can be found at the following website.
http://www.corestandards.org/Math/Content/3/OA/
You may notice that these are the same standards that we looked at in the multiplication post. They are the same standards because multiplication are generally coupled together. It is important that your child learn that multiplication and division are linked together, similar to the way that addition and subtraction are linked together. Your child needs to know that they can use multiplication to check their division problems and division to check their multiplication problems.
Let's begin with a little bit of vocabulary your child needs to know.
The vocabulary words are divisor, dividend, and quotient.
Divisor: the number that another number is being divided by.
Dividend: the number that is being divided.
Quotient: the answer to a division problem.
Arrays
Arrays can be used in division also.
Step 1: The first step is to use the divisor to begin your array. As shown in the picture of step one, the divisor is 6 so the array should begin by making either six rows or six columns. (In this case I created 6 rows.)
Step 2: Now your child will complete the array by adding a star to each column until they have 42 stars. It is very important that your child not forget about the first 6 stars that they have already drawn.
Step 3: This step is fairly quick. Your child just needs to count the number of columns that were created in their array. (They will count the number of rows if they started with columns.
Your child does need to know how to do this because it is part of the standard, but it will be so much easier for them if they know their math facts.
Equal Groups
Equal Groups is another strategy that can be slightly changed and used for division.
Step 1: The first step after receiving the problem is to draw dots that match the dividend. In our sample problem, the dividend is 30, so I drew 30 dots. This time when your child draws the dots, there doesn't need to be any rhyme or reason to how they draw them, as long as they know that they drew the correct number.
Step 2: In the second step, your child will create groups with the dots. In this example, there will be 5 in each group. The divisor will tell you how many dots should be in each group.
Step 3: In the final step, the only thing your child needs to do is count the number of groups that were made. The number of groups will be the quotient.
Strip Diagrams
O joy we are back to strip diagrams. Strip diagrams can also be used for division. The division strip diagram is different than the multiplication strip diagram for a couple of reasons. The first reason is that there can be numbers on both sides. Another reason is that, the strip diagram can be incomplete. I will show you what I mean in the examples that follow.
For the strip diagrams, I am showing the two different ways that a division strip diagram can be written. In the picture above, the red problem is showing the problem 24/6=? The first thing that you should point out to your child is that there are multiple question marks. These question marks could also be represented by letters. It is important for your child to understand that each question mark is worth the same amount because the boxes are all the same size. With this type of problem, your child is going to need to know their math facts. They need to understand that because 6x4=24 then 24/6=4.
For the second example written in blue, it shows the same problem 24/6=?. This strip diagram is set up a little bit differently. This diagrams shows you that each box will have 6 in it, but we are unsure of the number of boxes that are needs to complete the diagram. In order solve this problem, your child also needs to know their math facts. Understanding that 6x4=24 so 24/6=4 is going to be so important and will help your child immensely as they get into harder math.
Equation
Last but not least the equation. 32/4=? If your child knows their math facts they will be able to see that because 4x8=32, then 32/4=8.
This post follows closely along with the New Math Multiplication (3rd Grade) post. More difficult division will be cover in Division Part 2.
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