I'm going to follow this update with a, in my opinion, more important blog, so I'm going to keep this short. Above is the homework board for the week, and below is a picture of how we learned decimal division, it represents the story of "The Frog and the Dog."
Once upon a time, a sweet little dog lived happily in his home. The only thing that didn't quite seem right was the fact that he had no neighbors. He was slightly lonely. Finally, one day, his wish came true, and a frog moved in next door. The problem...the frog was not so nice. The dog quickly figured this out and decided to just keep to himself. It didn't seem to matter though, with as far as he kept away from the frog, he was still afraid of him. The frog soon figured this out and took full advantage of it. He liked to tease the dog and jump toward his house. Everytime the frog jumped toward the house, the dog jumped away. This continued happening until the frog found himself right next to dog's house. The frog walked up and peeked through the window. When the dog saw the frogs eyes through the window, he got so scared that he jumped through his roof.
It sounds silly, but it really is representational. Dividing decimals is gross, so we change the divisor (the number on the outside) to a whole number instead. For each spot we move the decimal place to the right in the divisor (the frog jumping toward the house), we have to move it the same number of times in the dividend (the number on the inside; the dog jumping away). Finally, wherever the number ends up in the dividend, we have to put the decimal up above it, in the quotient (the number on top; the answer; the dog jumping through the roof).
Needless to say, as silly as the story is, I think it really helps the kids to remember the steps for dividing decimals.
"In life, all good things come hard, but wisdom is the hardest to come by." ~ Lucille Ball (Hopefully, stories like 'the Frog and the Dog' make it a little easier to obtain some wisdom.)
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