Description
What our Decimal Division lesson plan includes
Lesson Objectives and Overview: Decimal Division teaches students how to divide decimals. At the end of the lesson, students will be able to divide decimals up to the thousandths. This lesson is for students in the 4th grade, 5th grade, and 6th grade.
Classroom Procedure
Every lesson plan provides you with a classroom procedure page that outlines a step-by-step guide to follow. You do not have to follow the guide exactly. The guide helps you organize the lesson and details when to hand out worksheets. It also lists information in the blue box that you might find useful. You will find the lesson objectives, state standards, and number of class sessions the lesson should take to complete in this area. In addition, it describes the supplies you will need as well as what and how you need to prepare beforehand.
Options for Lesson
Included with this lesson is an “Options for Lesson” section that lists a number of suggestions for activities to add to the lesson or substitutions for the ones already in the lesson. One optional addition to this lesson is to have your students play games using decimals such as drawing stacks of cards and getting one point for a correct answer. You can also have them design their own dividing decimals brochure that shows how to divide with decimals. Another optional addition is to have your students work out problems in chalk outside for extra fun! Finally, you can have your students create problems for each other to solve which reinforce the skills they need for the multiplication and division of decimals.
Teacher Notes
The teacher notes page includes lines that you can use to add your own notes as you’re preparing for this lesson.
DECIMAL DIVISION LESSON PLAN CONTENT PAGES
Dividing Decimals
The Decimal Division lesson plan includes two content pages. Before we begin with decimal division, it’s important to review some important vocabulary terms. When dividing, the number to be divided is the dividend, the number which divides the other number is the divisor, and the number that is the answer is the quotient.
Dividing Decimals by Whole Numbers
When you divide a decimal by a whole number, you ignore the decimal. Next, you complete the long division and place the decimal in the same place as it originally was. The lesson includes two example problems that students can review to help solidify their understanding.
Dividing Decimals by Decimals
Divide a decimal by a decimal is a little more complicated. First, you must move the decimal point to the right to make it a whole number. The number of places you move the decimal point in the divisor must equal the number of places you then move it in the dividend. Next, divide using long division until the answer either terminates or repeats. Finally, put the decimal directly above the decimal point in the dividend. The lesson includes three example problems that students can review to help solidify their understanding.
For the first example problem, 37.74 / 5.1, you first move the decimal point to make the divisor a whole number: 5.1 becomes 51. Because you moved the decimal one place, you do the same for the dividend: 37.74 becomes 377.4. You then use long division to solve.
DECIMAL DIVISION LESSON PLAN WORKSHEETS
The Decimal Division lesson plan includes four worksheets: an activity worksheet, a practice worksheet, a homework assignment, and a quiz. You can refer to the guide on the classroom procedure page to determine when to hand out each worksheet.
SAGE AND SCRIBE ACTIVITY WORKSHEET
Students will work in pairs to complete the activity worksheet. One student will be the sage and the other will be the scribe. The sage will give step-by-step instructions on how to solve the problems on the worksheet. The scribe will write the problems down and follow the instructions given by the sage. The scribe can’t talk while the sage gives directions, but can shake their head if they believe they’re given incorrect instructions. Each pair will solve three problems using this method.
DIVIDE PRACTICE WORKSHEET
The practice worksheet asks students to divide 12 decimal problems.
DECIMAL DIVISION HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT
For the homework assignment, students will find the quotients of six problems. They will also solve two word problems.
QUIZ
This lesson also includes a quiz that you can use to test students’ understanding of the lesson material. For the quiz, students will first find the quotients of three problems. They will also solve a word problem.
Worksheet Answer Keys
This lesson plan includes answer keys for the activity worksheet, the practice worksheet, the homework assignment, and the quiz. If you choose to administer the lesson pages to your students via PDF, you will need to save a new file that omits these pages. Otherwise, you can simply print out the applicable pages and keep these as reference for yourself when grading assignments.
