Solving Long Division Problems

Introduction

• Invite the students to bring their math journals and a pencil to the class meeting area.
• Tell them to place their supplies on the floor next to them.
• Tell the students that today they're going to learn a strategy for solving long division problems. Write the word Division on the board.
• Let the students know that division is an operation that tells us the number of groups that can be made out of another number.
• On the board, set up a division problem, such as 17/5. Solve the problem so that you are left with the answer 3 with a remainder of 2. Label each number with its corresponding name. 17 should be the dividend, 5 is the divisor, 3 is the quotient and 2 is the remainder.
• Define these terms for your students as follows:
• Dividend: In a division problem, the number that is to be divided is called the dividend.
• Divisor: In a division problem, the number that divides the dividend is called the divisor.
• Quotient: Upon division, the number obtained other than the remainder is called the quotient.
• Remainder: The remainder is the number that is left over after dividing.