Throwdown Linky - Post It Note Division

Update 11/28

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Happy Thursday everyone!  It seems like it should already be Friday.  One three day weekend and I get so spoiled:)  Just in case you didn't check back in on Monday's post, Gus was found safe and sound!

While I was cruising through the weekend linky parties, I noticed that Erin from I'm Lovin' Lit was having a linky focusing on making learning more interactive.

Well, as I mentioned in Sunday's post, I have been playing around with an idea for long division.  My students are really struggling with long division.  We don't actually teach it in 6th grade, but we use it to convert fractions to decimals, probability, formulas....so, they need to know how to do it.  This year's group keeps asking, "Where do the numbers come from?"  It really got me thinking back to my elementary years, and being totally bewildered by long division..."Where do the numbers come from," and "How did that get there?"  Let us be honest, there are a lot of numbers and moving of them involved in long division.  I still get lost if I have to stop in the middle of a problem.

This year's group really needs to move and interact, so I pulled out an OCD teacher's best friend - POST IT NOTES!  We tried it out this week, and it really clicked with some of my struggling boos.  They are still struggling with their division facts, but they understand the steps a little better.  It seemed as if they were able to see how the numbers lined up and where they came from with the POST IT notes.

1.   I started out by using one color for the divisor and another for the dividend.

 2.   We kept the quotient and the product the same color as the divisor.  Why?  Because my kids needed a visual reminder of how they are related.  Yellow is for the difference.

 3.  Then we physically picked up the next number in the dividend and moved it down next to the difference.  At this point, one of my kids incredulously shouted out, "That is where that comes from?"

 4.  Keeping the divisor, quotient and products the same color...

5.  We just kept moving down the dividend and carefully lining it up with the quotient.

 

6.  At the bottom, the last difference was the remainder.

This worked well on the whiteboard with large Post It notes for my small groups yesterday.  They were big enough that the students could easily see them and move them.

If I was working one on one, I would use the smaller Post It notes and construction paper.

As far as whole class/partner work, I am considering making number tiles and mats to make to make a real partner activity (to save on the Post It notes).

I even think that this could be adapted to work as a foldable in our Math Notebooks.  Maybe with the paper number tiles and a foldout....

This is one of those activities that you will have to refine and adapt for your classroom.  For example, with some students the different colors might be confusing.  My kids really liked the patterns that the colors made on the paper.   Play with it!

The MOVING of the numbers, having to line them up, and the color codes really helped them see the process. They loved it, and want to do more this week.  More long division?  Crazy!

Don't forget to link up at I'm Lovin' Lit with your interactive idea!  And don't forget to stop by and see what great interactive ideas other teachers are sharing!