Pasta division is something a teacher can use to help students understand the idea of dividing among individuals. The teacher puts 30 pieces of pasta on a plate. One student comes and counts the pasta to ensure there are 30. The teacher then calls up five or six students and tells the first to give each student an equal number of pasta pieces. The student will give out one pasta piece at a time until they are all in the hands of the five or six other students. The teacher can then tell the other students to count the pieces. They should have either six if there are five students or five if there are six students. Tell the children that this is division. The pasta was divided by five or six students, which means 30 divided by the five or six equals six or five pieces of pasta each. This gives a hands-on understanding of the concept.
Teachers can incorporate both math skills and writing skills into a single lesson by giving students a project to write a three-paragraph story. The teacher gives a theme, such as two friends go to an amusement park and are given 53 tickets for bowling. The teacher then tells the students to write a short story telling how the two friends decide to divide up the tickets. This teaches students the division skills, allows them creativity, and creates a situation where the students work on problem-solving skills, since there is a remainder. Teachers can change up the story situation so students end up with even numbers, remainders or must incorporate a specific element of creativity, such as telling a funny story or telling a sad story. The teacher can allow students to share the stories as they prefer.
Teachers can use word problems, such as how many pizzas would each student need to sell for the class to reach 600 pizzas sold. The teacher then tells the students to divide it evenly among the number of students in the class. For example, if there are 30 students, the students would need to sell 20 pizzas each. The students should work together to find the answer and can use any method they prefer. Teachers can give a few minutes for students to work it out and then explain that the problem is division and they are going to learn rules for division.
Teachers can create a division fact song to help students learn the rules of dividing. For example, if students are learning to divide by two, the students learn the facts of how to divide by two through the song and then what to do with the remainder if the number was odd. Teachers can make up any preferred song and make it interesting by adding a rap or pop tune for the music. Students not only remember the rules of division, but learning to divide by singing a song makes the rules interesting for students.