Year 4 - Division Division Division!

This week in Year 4 we having been talking all things division! 

We started the week with a big discussion about what it means to divide and when this might be needed in the real world. Here are some of the comments children made: 

If we had to buy something for lots of people you would need to divide.

If you had to work out how much something is if it was in a big pack, like working out one bag of crisps if it came in a pack with 20.

When you have spares left they are called remainders.

If you half something you are dividing by 2.

Once we were secure explaining what division means, we moved onto practising the skill of division... 

Concrete

First, we started with concrete objects. We went outside to share ourselves out into equal groups and observed how many were left over - if any. We stressed the importance of each group being equal and learnt that anyone that could not join an equal group were the remainders.

Pictorial

After, we applied what we learnt outside about groups and sharing to our pictorial representations. We ensured we still had concrete objects alongside our pictorial representations to make sure we understood how they linked to one another.

We then represented our division calculations in our own ways using pictures to tell the maths story behind the different calculations. 

I shared balloons out between people. 

I shared apples into baskets, there were 3 remainders.

Amandeep and Elliott's pictorial representations of division.

Abstract

Finally, we transferred all this knowledge into abstract mathematical calculations. In particular, we have been learning how to use the bus stop method.

I found it so hard and confusing on the first day, Miss had to help me. but the next day I got it. I'm really happy! Naz

Bus stop method 

After mastering fluency and reasoning, Ruben faced a chocolate, problem solving challenge. 

"It was so confusing!" said Ruben.