Role-play activities give kids the chance to act out division lessons to gain hands-on experience with the new information on remainders. One role-play activity idea for division with remainders is to set up the scenario of a merchant and a vendor performing a transaction. The kids can use play currency for the transactions, which incorporates the concepts of dividing the products and their costs and having remainders leftover. Another role-play activity is for kids to act out a scenario in which they must bake a pie and use division and remainders for the ingredients.
Certain circumstances call for remainders to be rounded up or down. Remainders must be rounded up when the remainders are important, or down when they are unimportant. A rounding activity teaches students how to round remainders up or down. One activity idea is for kids to read a worksheet on several scenarios that involve remainders, and write the words "Round Up" or "Round Down" next to each scenario. Another rounding activity is to split the class into teams and read a scenario out loud. Each team must shout out the words "Up" or "Down" in response to what the teacher should do with the division remainder.
A real life application activity gives students the chance to examine their every day lives to see how division and remainders apply. As an activity, students identify two or three instances throughout the day where division and remainders are used, which are shared with the class. Another real life application activity idea is for kids to interview their parents or other adults and ask them when they use division and remainders in their everyday lives.
A storytelling activity lets kids use their imaginations to portray division with remainder concepts to stories. One idea for a storytelling activity is for kids to write in their daily logs or class journals about a story that involves division and remainders. Another idea is for kids to tell stories orally in class in small teams. A third activity idea may be for kids to write poems that tell stories about division and remainders, and host a contest for the best classroom poet.