A Long Division Game

Marilyn Burns (my math hero) co-authored a book called Extending Division, which has many lessons for students who are in the process of learning division.  One of the lessons is called “The Division Game”.  In short the students make two decks of cards–a pile of multiples cards and a pile of factor pairs.  Students draw one factor pair card and five multiple cards.  The object of the game is to eventually gain a hand of multiples cards (by drawing and discarding) that match the factor pair card.  During an actual experience with fourth graders, the students needed most of the hour class period to actually understand the game and didn’t have quality time to experience the game in full the first day.  Once the students had understanding of the game, they really enjoyed playing.  The other quibble I have with the game is the amount of time that students must take to make their own multiple and factor pair cards.  While making multiple and factor pair cards is another opportunity for students to become familiar with these concepts, again this becomes a time factor spent making cards when students, in my opinion, could spend their time doing a richer activity.