Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Dividing Decimals

Happy New Year!  I know it's been awhile since I have blogged but this school year has been soooo busy! One of my New Year resolutions is to blog at least once a week!  So here is my first blog of the new year!

Before we got out for the break, we began working on dividing with decimals.  I was searching for creative ways to teach this concept to my students and ran across Engage NY and I absolutely loved it!  On this website New York has posted their Common Core math curriculum modules.


After I looked at their lessons for dividing decimals, I instantly knew that I was going to use them in my class!  The lessons are very challenging!  To review the two lessons on dividing decimals that I taught, I created a set of task cards, which my students love! These task cards cover the following: dividing decimals with multiples of 10, 100, 1000, estimating decimals quotients, and dividing decimals and whole numbers.
You can check these cards out in my TpT Store.

I use task cards in a number of ways in my classroom.  With this review, the task cards were placed at each desk and the students worked on task cards as space became available at each desk.  


As students work on the task cards, I walk around and monitor their work.  I am able to work one-on-one with students as I notice any errors that are being made as they solve their problems.


Students enjoy using task cards this way because they know that if they are struggling I will work with them individually without the interruption of their classmates.  


Now that students have practiced these skills, we are ready to move on to dividing decimals and whole numbers!  This will be tomorrow's lesson from Engage NY.


Below are three student videos that explain how to divide using two lessons from Engage NY.  The students will be explaining how to solve task cards #s 5, 12, and 15. 

Task Card #5 - Even though the task card only asks the student to divide by 10, this student will also explain how to divide by 100 and 1000.

 

Task #12 -Decomposing Numbers to Make Dividing with Decimals Easier - Notice that the student will decompose 30 to 10 and 3 to make dividing much easier since she knows how to divide using multiples of 10, 100 or 1000.


Task Card #15 - Estimating Decimal Quotients - Notice that once the student rounds the divisor he will find a multiple of the divisor that is close to the dividend in order to get his estimated quotient.


This is just the beginning of dividing with decimals! Tomorrow we use what we have learned to divide decimals and whole numbers!  What are some engaging activities and lessons you are using with dividing decimals?

2 comments:

  1. I love the EngageNY website! It's a great resource and I use it weekly. NY has it together!

    Liz
    BeachTeach

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  2. I LOVE what you are doing with teaching dividing decimals because that can be a very difficult concept for the kiddos! LOVE EngageNY too! Thanks for sharing :) I am your newest follower!
    -Julie
    The Techie Teacher

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