Try out this missing factor game to practice your multiplication and fact family skills! When you’re done leave a comment with three fact families that you know by heart. Click on the picture below to find the game.
Today, we worked on determining whether a word problem is asking us to multiply or divide. We decided that if the problem starts with a bigger number and asks you to split it with a smaller number, then it’s time to divide!
We did an excellent job on our math talk problem:
Look at all of our amazing strategies!
The only thing we need to work on is making bigger smiles!
One tip is to notice the numbers given in the problem:
If the problem gives you a big number to be split apart by a little number- then it’s time to divide!
If the problem gives you two numbers to put together- then it’s time to multiply!
I have three friends and each friend has 11 freckles on her face! How many freckles do my friends have altogether?
I have 33 pencils and 3 friends. I want to split the pencils between my friends equally. How many pencils would each friend get?
I have 32 cookies and 4 friends. If each of my friends are super hungry, how many cookies will they get?
Division problems can be tricky when you first try to attack them! Coming up with a story to go with your problem can help you understand what the problem is asking you to do. For example the problem 10/5= x can look confusing. But when you write a story for it, it is easy! Look at this division problem below from Mrs. Harris’ class.
Here is another problem to consider:
To solve this problem I can come up with a story to help me think about splitting 18 three different ways. Here is my story:
I have three boxes to carry 18 cupcakes in to school. If I want each box to contain an equal number of cupcakes, how many cupcakes will end up in each box?
Now I can draw out pictures of the boxes and split the cupcakes into each one. After I split up the cupcakes equally, I see that I have six cupcakes in each box. 18/3 = 6
For our Math Blog Center this week, write division problems for the following equations. Draw pictures, and solve the problems. Remember to write your problems out on the center paper and leave a comment as well!
12/6 = x
24/3 = x
30/5 = x
Yesterday, we had another great math talk! Our mathematician talked us through a challenging division problem. She showed us how she used reverse subtraction, or subtracting backwards, to solve her problem.
First our mathematician subtracted 5’s backwards from 30. She wrote the equation 30 – 5 = 25, then 25 – 5 = 20, and so on all the way down to 5 – 5 = 0. Next, she counted up how many times she subtracted five of the soccer balls from the original 30. She figured out that 30 can be split by 5, 6 times! So Francisco can put 6 soccer balls into each of the 5 sports bags. 30/5 = 6.