How to Use Manipulatives to Teach Long Division

Teaching children long division is a challenging task that can be simplified using manipulatives, which are objects that help children get a hands-on experience of situations. Although you can buy these from a store, ordinary objects that kids like playing with serve equally well. In order to teach the concept of long division, it is important to begin with simple problems that do not involve a remainder. Once the children get familiar with the process of dividing to get one single answer, they can be introduced to the concept of the remainder by using examples where it is not possible to divide the leftover object.

Instructions

    • 1

      Collect objects to use as manipulatives. They don't need to be store-bought objects; look for items around the house such as beans, cubes, buttons, beads, bottle caps, pencils, cookies and chocolates.

    • 2

      Have your child count and lay out 20 buttons. Ask him to separate four buttons and place them as a group on the table. Have him repeat this until all the buttons are in separate groups. Ask your child to now count how many groups of buttons are present. Explain that what he did was divide 20 (the dividend) by four (the divisor) to obtain five (the quotient). Repeat this game using different items and numbers.

    • 3

      Introduce your child to the concept of dividing with a remainder. Place 11 beans on the table. Ask your child to separate these beans into two bowls. Show him how to put one bean into one bowl and the next one into the other bowl. Instruct him to keep repeating this until the beans have gone an equal number of times into each bowl. He will realize that after moving the beans five times, both bowls have five beans each and there is one bean still left on the table. Help him understand that this bean that cannot be divided and has to be kept aside is called the "remainder."

    • 4

      Place seven cookies on a big plate and ask your child to divide them equally into two plates -- one for himself and another for his friend. When he has divided three cookies into each plate, ask him what can be done with the leftover cookie. If he doesn't realize it, show him how the single cookie can be divided into two equal halves and placed one on each plate. Explain that both he and his friend now have three-and-a-half cookies each, so there is no remainder.

    • 5

      Reinforce your child's understanding by asking him to apply this concept in various scenarios you create. If there are four children playing together and 12 toys have to be equally divided, how many toys will each child get? If there are 13 kids going for a trip to the zoo and two cars to take them there, how many children will be there in each car? If there are 28 books to be divided equally among six children, how many will each child get; how many books cannot be given out because then some children will have more books than the others?

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