Steps to Long Division Bookmarks

Long division:  It's so important to so many other math concepts.  It's also a tough concept to master and memorize.  So what do we do?

Is your hand up?  I know mine is!  It was with these goals in mind that I created my Steps to Long Division Bookmarks.  


These are dual-sided bookmarks that present the steps for long division in two ways:
The first uses the mnemonic of the family (daddy, mommy, sister, brother, Cali, Rover) 
The second uses a cheeseburger (does McDonald's serve cheese burgers). 

The bookmark format allows students to keep this visual reminder in their textbook, or even in their nightly reading books for a handy study guide. 

Just print, glue the two sides together, and laminate.  Then students can choose which mnemonic makes the most sense to them.

You can pick up a copy by clicking here.

What tips and tricks do you have for helping students learn and study the steps for long division?  I'd love to hear from you!

Math is Real Life: Preparing a House for a Toddler

Jamie at Miss Math Dork  hosts a monthly "Math is Real Life" linky in which teachers share their real life experiences with math.  I am proud to be participating in the January link up.

The biggest news around our house lately is that our little man (Noah), who turns 11 months old on January 12th, is speed crawling and acting like he could learn to walk at any time.  What an exciting and crazy time!  What that means for us is that we need to baby proof our house ASAP because you can't have a toddler running around with free access to the stairs.

Here comes the math!  The first thing we had to do was use a measuring tape to measure the entryways that needed to be blocked off.  That part wasn't too hard.  We just made sure to measure EXACTLY from one side of the stairway to the other (no rounding to the nearest inch or 1/2 inch).

My hubby measuring the entryway.  It was 35 1/2 inches wide.

Next, we had to find a baby gate that fit the entryway without being to large or small.  Believe it or not, it's not that easy to find a baby gate that is exactly 35 1/2 inches wide.  So, we decided that we wanted to buy a gate that would expand to fit the entryway, called pressure mounted.

Target, here we come!  We shopped around a bit online and found that the one below.

We made sure to look at the details mentioned in the description just to make sure the width/length was wide enough.

The gate will extend to 38 inches, but we only need 35 1/2 inches, so we are good to go!

I have to admit, it took me awhile to fully understand how to properly use a ruler growing up once I was required to measure things to the 1/4 inch.  So, I came up with a visual to help my students understand how to measure to the nearest 1/2 or 1/4 inch.

It takes students step-by-step through the process of measuring an item by instructing them to:
~Find the nearest whole unit (inch)
~Find the nearest 1/2 inch
~Find the nearest 1/4 inch
~Determine if the object is closest to the nearest 1/4 or 1/2 inch
~There is a blank ruler and paperclip on the last slide so students can practice on their own

I still use this process in my head when I'm measuring!

You can pick up a copy of this visual by clicking here.

Long Division Videos and Games

Wow.  Long division is always one of those things that takes numerous resources and practice to master.  This year, I've added some new videos for my anticipatory sets and review.  I've also found some websites and games that

Introducing long division
Anticipatory Set for introducing division with base ten/place value blocks:
This video from Education Unboxed is a fantastic way to introduce long division using place value blocks as arrays.  I had never thought to do this before!  Considering we just finished our unit on arrays as they apply to multiplication, this was a natural first step.

This video from Nextvista shows a group of students incorporating kinesthetics into their long division by doing a dance with different movements to go with the steps to long division.  Then there's a video actually doing the steps on paper.
Another video incorporating kinesthetics and a rap.
This video shows how to front end estimate long division problems.

Practicing Facts
Sum Sense Game that gives three numbers and has students drag and drop them to create division facts.
Division Machine Game

Reviewing long division
Fun4thebrain games
Division hidden number game: You can differentiate the numbers so that there are remainders.  The problem will either give the quotient, divisor, or dividend and the student has to fill in the missing number.

So, this is the first couple of weeks of our long division unit.  Obviously, there's a ton of practice and review needed.  Do you have any other resources for introducing or reviewing long division?  I could use all the help I can get!

Introducing Multiplication with a Hundreds Chart

After reviewing our basic multiplication and division facts, we are extending the journey with patterns of multiplication.  The next goal we have is to familiarize students with factors and multiples so they can understand the patterns of multiplication.

Some great anchor chart examples:

If you want to try factor trees:

Then I found several activities that used hundreds charts.  I'm using laminated hundreds charts for these activities.  You can find free copies any number of places.  Click here for a nice one on TpT.

Here is my favorite finds:

Mary Bauer's "Factors and Multiples".  Click here to check it out.

Do you have any great activities for teaching factors and multiples?

Math Rounding Rules Poster

Each year, we almost always start out with a review of place value as it applies to rounding, and each year, I feel like I cannot do enough to help students remember the rules for rounding to a specific place value.

So I created a poster to put up next to my math word wall that I will refer students to when we are doing our daily review.  After all, I can say it a million times but ultimately, they must make that metacognitive process work for themselves.  The more they go look at the poster, the more they will commit it to memory or at least learn to read the room!

This customizable polka dot PowerPoint shows the little saying that I use to teach/review rounding rules with my students. I have added a little extra to it this year, so we'll see how successful the saying is! You can pick up a FREE COPY by clicking here.

Donors Choose Project Funded!

I just had my fourth Donors Choose project funded!  If you are unfamiliar with Donors Choose, it's a fabulous resource for teachers to request materials needed for their classroom.  Generous donors choose what projects to which they'd like to contribute.  When the project is fully funded, the materials are shipped to your school.

For more information on the vendors from which you can "shop" and request materials, click here.

This time, I requested math literature that would match the rest of my curriculum from Kaplan Learning Company.  You can check out the whole package below by clicking here.

 

Not only is this book great for teaching the various kinds of graphs, but I also had students use it to help them create a line graph to chart the changes in speed for our ramp and toy car experiment in science.

 

 

This is an excellent book (The Moon is Broke Together)!  It talks about the phases of the Moon and how each phase is actually a fraction of a whole (full moon).  The Making Literature Connections - Manual with Books - Grades 4-5 kit that comes with these books has a great activity that has students sort the phases in order of their fractions of the whole.

 

 

Another great perimeter and area activity goes with Spaghetti and Meatballs for All using snap cubes.

 

 

Students can also learn to build, compare, and order decimals with the book above. 

I haven't finished creating/copying all the activities, but I'm telling you, it's well worth the money even if you choose to purchase it with your own money!

How about you?  Do you have any good books to link all the subjects together?

Resources for Teaching Fractions

Throughout my teaching experience, I've always felt that fractions was one of the most difficult things for me to teach.  Maybe it's because learning fractions as a student made me miserable.  Maybe it's because most of my teachers didn't use concrete materials or explain why fractions are important.  Whatever the case, I want to make this unit as fun and practical for students as possible.

I've been pinning quite a bit of resources to help me with this effort, and I'd like to share them with you.  You can browse the entire board on Pinterest by clicking here if you'd like, but I thought I'd share a few of my favs.

Songs.  Songs for teaching anything are awesome!  This is a video about converting mixed numbers to improper fractions.  This tough concept is vital for being able to recognize equivalent fractions.

Candy.  Candy will pretty much motivate any kid to want to do math, no matter how difficult the concept.  Since Valentines Day just happened, you might even have some extra lying around just waiting to be used for such an occasion.

Fraction Strips.  Yes, Fraction Strips.  Those obnoxious things that get torn and misplaced but wait....
Is that a really ingenious solution to all those problems?  Why, yes!  Yes it is!

Put a brade in one end so they're always together.  I also have my students put them in a plastic baggy and staple it to the front of their math notebooks.  No more tearing, no more misplacing them.  Thank you, Pinterest!

Please feel free to add your own ingenious solutions to teaching fractions.  I need all the help I can get!

Listen to Word Problems

I don't know about you, but my students can always use extra practice with and learn new tools for completing word problems in math.  I recently came across a method that makes it more like a game for partners or trios.  It's called "Listen to Word Problems".

Although this works really well for math, it could easily be applied to science, or any other subject that requires students to systematically process information to come up with an answer.

You can pick up a free copy of this at my TpT store by clicking here.

Do you have any other fun activities for helping students with tackling word problems?

Steps to Long Division Bookmarks

This is a dual-sided bookmark that presents the steps for long division in two ways. The first uses the mnemonic of the family (daddy, mommy, sister, brother, rex, cocoa), and the second uses a cheeseburger (does McDonald's serve cheese burgers). The bookmark format allows students to keep this visual reminder in their textbook, or even in their nightly reading books for a handy study guide.

I like to print, cut, glue the two sides together and laminate them so they last longer.  You can pick up a free copy of the bookmarks at my TpT store by clicking here.

What tips and tricks do you have for helping students learn and study the steps for long division?  I'd love to hear from you!

Teaching Algebraic Equations with Concrete Materials

My students had trouble understanding exactly what they were doing when they were solving equations.  Sure they could figure out the value of the missing number, but could they explain WHY? No.  So we did a simple, yet extremely effective, activity that really helped.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Do you use any other concrete materials to help students understand algebra?

 

 

 

Helping Students Retain Math Concepts

In fourth grade, we start introducing some brand new math ideas and ask students to start using the information they previously learned in advanced ways.  For many students, this is stressful and they experience "brain dump."  Essentially, brain dump is where you "learn" something long enough to take the test and then dump the information from your brain for good.

So how do I help them retain the information?  A "Problem of the Day."  I'm working on the problems they will be required to complete after the first couple of months.  I want it to directly relate to what they've already learned, but also what they will be learning.

This is a PowerPoint presentation.  I print the slides and either laminate them or put them in page protectors.  Then I can use a dry erase markers to change the information.  I have students complete one or two of the activities each day as a warm up before math and then we discuss.  You can pick up a FREE copy at my TpT store by clicking here.

Do you use a review activity before each math lesson?  How do you get your students to practice and retain previously taught information?

Angry Birds End-of-Year Activitiy

I wanted to do a fun math activity that wasn't completely "fluff" for the last week of school.  So I did some poking around on the Internet, and here's what I found.

I started by showing the class this video.  This is an EXCELLENT 9 minute video from teachertipster.com.  The guy in this video is so funny.  Some of the video addresses teachers directly, but the students loved watching it to get an idea of what would be expected of them.

I had the kids bring in their Angry Birds stuffies and various shapes of boxes, which they then wrapped THEMSELVES (hurrah for intermediates!) in bulletin board paper.  I also had them use poster board and 3-D shapes to make their own "nets" and cover them for the shapes that weren't represented.

They then labeled them with the 3-D shape name and money amount they thought the shape would be "worth" if it was knocked down.  We went with $0.25, $0.50, $0.75, and $1.00.  This helped them practice adding decimals and writing money amounts correctly.

We measured a "safe throwing distance" with a meter stick and converted it to feet.  Gotta love anytime you can sneak in converting measurements!

Each new team got to set up the tower in any way they wanted, resulting in about 5 completely different set-ups. 

The team that knocked down the most money won, but everyone had a great time.  No one seemed too worried about who actually "won."

Have you used Angry Birds in your curriculum?  I'd love to know how!

Math Word Wall

My principal and math specialist would like us to start using math word walls.  I've been contemplating doing this for some time myself, so I was happy to check out the link below when it was sent to me.

http://www.primary-education-oasis.com/math-vocabulary-words.html

**Warning** Just be careful if you want to show it to others (especially students) because it's one of those websites that is funded by advertisements.  This week's ad is apparently funded by a company that will remain nameless.  Suffice it to say that it's one of those "date night" ads.

Scroll down to near the bottom, and you can click on the appropriate grade level vocabulary cards to print for your word wall.  Of course I chose fourth grade.  Here's a peek at some of the cards:

I plan to print, laminate, and attach them to my cabinets with poster putty.

Math Prefixes PowerPoints

I made two PowerPoints that help students understand and apply math words that start with common prefixes.  One of them is about measurement terms and the other is about geometric terms.  You can pick them both up at my TPT store for FREE.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Prefixes-of-Measurement-Words

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Geometric-Prefixes-PowerPoint

I hope you can use these!  I attached them to two different WebQuests that I'm working on.  I'll share those when they're done.