Base-Ten Blocks to Divide

10 min

Narrative

The purpose of this What Do You Know About _____? is to invite students to share what they know about base-ten blocks in the context of division. Some students may choose to reflect on base-ten blocks and division, while others may simply describe what they know about base-ten blocks. Any reflection offered by students is useful for activating prior knowledge for the lesson.

Launch

  • Display a pile of base-ten blocks.
  • “What do you know about base-ten blocks?”
  • 1 minute: quiet think time
Teacher Instructions
  • Record responses.

Student Task

What do you know about base-ten blocks?

Sample Response

Sample responses:

  • They show thousands, hundreds, tens, and ones.
  • They can represent different values.
  • Each larger block is 10 times the size of the previous block.

Synthesis

  • “Which blocks would we use to represent the number 324?”
  • “You have used base-ten blocks to represent large numbers. Today you are going to see how they can be helpful to divide larger numbers.”
Standards
Building Toward
  • 4.NBT.A·Generalize place value understanding for multi-digit whole numbers.
  • 4.NBT.A·Generalize place value understanding for multi-digit whole numbers.

25 min

10 min