5th Grade Math: Diving into Division
Dear Families,
I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Just wanted to check in to let you know what we are working on in math. As you may have noticed, we have been diving into division. I gave a problem to begin the unit about 1128 people needing to travel by bus, with each bus having a capacity of 36 passengers.
I was impressed with the variety of strategies that students are using. Some students used algorithms, such as partial quotients or the standard algorithm, but I also saw ratio tables and using multiplication to build to the dividend. The flexibility in the grade is amazing. I was more impressed when I realized that no student left a remainder. They all realized that the remainder was a number of people, requiring an additional bus. This shows that they were really thinking about the context of the problem and what the numbers mean, rather than just computing.
Today, students are learning the standard algorithm for division and relating it to other strategies we know. We will also be looking at how to represent remainders as fractions when relevant. There will most likely be a test on division some time next week. I will post the date on School Loop as it gets closer.
Enjoy the rest of your week!