Counting All

Videos for Educators

Important Information:

Before starting division, students should have multiple opportunities to practice sharing things equally. This can be done by sharing items equalling with other students such as toys, stickers, papers, art supplies, etc. Students develop the idea of fair sharing long before we introduce it in math.

At this stage in the process of learning division, students should spend a lot of time using manipulatives and answer questions that they can relate to. Have students solve problems such as, how may pencils will each student get from the box? How many Halloween candies will each student get until the teacher runs out? How many markers does each group get to write on chart paper? How many pieces of coloured paper do we need if each students needs 3 for art?

Division is sometimes discussed using the phrase goes into, as in 6 goes into 24. This phrase carries little meaning about division, especially in connection with a fair-sharing or partitioning context; the goes into terminology is simply ingrained in adult parlance. In place of goes into, use more appropriate terminology with students, such as, How many groups of 6 are in 24? (Stanford)

Multiplication Models

Example of what students might do:

Example of what students might say: "I counted out 16 hearts. I then started putting them into group of 4. When I was done I counted up how many groups I had."

Strategies to Support Student Learning:

• Encourage students to begin to try to create groups of the composite number until they reach the total amount being divided.

• Encourage students to use skip counting

• Create and use questions with smaller numbers to help build confidence