LESSON PLAN FORMAT
Teacher’s Name: ___Ashley Logan______
Grade Level __3__
Date: ____2/26/15____
Subject/Topic: ___Math/Developing Number Concepts-Division__
School: ___West Utica Elementary___
District: _________Utica Community__________
Lesson Plan Title: ______Building Models of Division Problems_______
Michigan Common Core:
N.MR.03.14 Solve division problems involving remainders, viewing the remainder as the “number
left over”; interpret based on problem context, e.g., when we have 25 children with 4 children per
group then there are 6 groups with 1 child left over. [Core]
N.MR.03.15 Given problems that use any one of the four operations with appropriate numbers, represent
with objects, words (including “product” and “quotient”), and mathematical statements; solve. [Core]
N.MR.03.10 Recognize situations that can be solved using multiplication and division including finding
“How many groups?” and “How many in a group?” and write mathematical statements to represent those
situations.[Core]
Demographics:
24 3rd graders at West Utica Elementary. Children will sit at their tables/desks. Whole Group.
Rationale:
Students need to develop deep number sense in order to continue on with their mathematic
education and to get a better understanding of why/how a division problem is solved. Using the
hands on models will help them with this.
Outcomes:
SWBAT recognize situations that can be solved using division including finding “How many
groups?” and “How many in a group?” and write mathematical statements to represent those
situations.
SWBAT be given problems that use any one of the four operations with appropriate numbers,
represent with objects, words (“quotient”), and mathematical statements; solve.
SWBAT Solve division problems involving remainders, viewing the remainder as the “number left
over”; interpret based on problem context, e.g., when we have 25 children with 4 children per
group then there are 6 groups with 1 child left over.
Assessment/Evaluation:
a. Participation/Observation
b. Practice Worksheet
Materials Needed ELMO/overhead, practice worksheets, manipulatives (blocks, beans, paperclips
etc.)
Teacher Procedure/Development
Introduction
How many of you think division can be sort of tricky some times? Who thinks it is helpful to use
different things like blocks and paperclips to solve and better understand some math problems?
Well, today we are going to have a hands-on math lesson with these sorts of things to help us out!
Methods and Procedures
We will build models for division problems today. We will be making stacks, rows, and groups in
this lesson. As we go through the lesson, we will write these as division problems together/talk
about them so they can see that is why we are doing this.
These are the things I will be saying to the students and having them do:
 Make a train twenty-four cubes long.”
 How many stacks of three can you make from this train?
 Put the train back together.
 Now find out how many stacks of two you can make from it.
 Divide your twenty-four cubes into four stacks.
 Make each stack the same height.
 Now divide the twenty-four cubes into three stacks all the same size.
 How many are in each stack?
 Get sixteen tiles.
 How many rows of eight can you make using all these tiles?
 How many rows can you make if each row is six tiles long?
 Make two rows using all sixteen tiles.
 How many tiles are in each row?
 Now divide the sixteen tiles into five rows all the same length.
 How many tiles are in each row?
 Get three plastic cups.
 Divide twelve counters among these cups so that you have the same number of counters in
each cup.

How many counters are in each cup?

Now get sixteen counters.
 Put them into the three cups so that you have the same number in each cup.
 How many counters go into each up?
 Get fifteen counters.
 Put them into two cups so that you have the same number in both cups.
 How many counters are in each cup?
 Any leftovers/remainders?
 Now put fifteen counters into three cups.
 How many counters are in each cup?
 How many cups should we try this time?
 How many counters should we use?
I will then give the class a practice worksheet and have them begin to work on it on at their
tables/desks. I will circle the room observing them. We will go over at least some of the answers
after some time.
Closure
Great job boys and girls! I hope that you have a better understanding now of how we can use
different items to help us solve division problems and why we get remainders sometimes. We’ll
continue to work on this tomorrow.
Technology Use ELMO projector, whiteboard
Accommodations/Adaptations A child in my class is an ELL and doesn’t speak English yet. The
boy he sits next to will translate some things for him during my lesson in Arabic. I will spend some
time later with this student to help him better understand what we were doing.
Teacher Reflection: This lesson did not go as planned. There are some things that I would change
for the future, with this particular group especially. One thing that I think I would change about this
lesson is the length of the lesson. It was way too long for this group of students to sit for one lesson.
Something that I could have done was to switch on and off again from the lecture and the
worksheet. This could have given them quick brain breaks. I had also planned on taking a brain
break in the middle of the lesson by dancing to a quick song but I forgot to do it. I think that having
all three of the different manipulatives on their desks at once was too much for them. I wouldn’t
have all three of the manipulatives on their desks at one time because it was too much of a
distraction and some of them weren’t focusing. I think that this is a good lesson that could be really
great. Unfortunately, I think that it was a bit challenging for this class in particular. I had to spend
most of the lesson managing the classroom and it was getting in the way of the learning process.
Overall, on paper I think this is a good lesson, and I would try it again with a different class. But,
with this class and this lesson, I was disappointed. I went into the class ready to teach. I wasn’t
nervous at all and was excited to teach the math lesson because I thought it would be a fun way for
the students to learn division. The students couldn’t handle it and once they decided they were
done, they were done. If something like this happens again maybe I could regroup them in a circle
on the rug and talk about appropriate behaviors in the classroom. This seems to get them
“restarted” sometimes. I could have also just dropped the lesson all together and came back to it
another time because it wasn’t going to work and I sort of sensed that from the beginning, but felt I
needed to go on and finish it. I could have also had alternative work (work packets in hall or back
of class) for the students who were misbehaving. This lesson was an eye opener for me to see what
happens when a lesson goes wrong.