Long Division Math Games: Learning Through Play

Long Division at a Glance

At the fourth grade level, your child will begin learning how to solve problems using long division. It will be important that your child knows and understands each of the steps that he or she must perform throughout the division process. Your child will need to divide, multiply, subtract, check and bring down repeatedly until each of the numbers in the dividend (the number under the division bracket) have been brought down and divided by the divisor (the number outside the division bracket). If your child is having trouble remembering the steps for long division, you may try making up a funny sentence or rhyme to help your child with the steps.

At this grade level, your child will be working with 1-digit divisors and work his or her way up to 4-digit dividends. These division problems will often have a remainder. You will want to make sure that your child understands why a remainder is left over at the end of the division process.

Follow Your Steps

Before beginning this activity, write a variety of numbers that can be used as divisors on slips of paper and drop them into a bowl. On additional pieces of paper, write numbers that can be used as dividends and place them in a different bowl. Ask your child to draw one piece of paper from each bowl to create a long division problem. Have your fourth grader follow the steps of long division to complete this math problem. Depending on her ability level, feel free to use smaller dividends for your child to work with.

Check Your Work!

Have your child extend the previous activity by using multiplication to check his work. On a large cemented area, give your child sidewalk chalk and ask him to check the answers from each long division problem. For example, if your child divided 5608 ÷ 4 and came up with an answer of 1402, then your child would check his work by multiplying 1402 x 4. If the quotient 1402 is correct, then your child should have 5608 as the product when he multiplies the two numbers.

For any division problems with an incorrect quotient, have your child try dividing the problem again using the sidewalk chalk. If you do not have a cemented area, feel free to have your child perform this activity using paper and pencil.