How To Use Base 10 Blocks or Cut Outs for Teaching Long Division:

Sunday March 15, 2009

Base 10 blocks should be used for number concepts for a variety of reasons but most importantly, they help to promote understanding. Base 10 blocks are sold at most educational product stores. A 100 cube block represents 100, a 10 cube block represents 10 and a small cube represents 1. Students represent the numbers using the blocks. When students are dividing a number, they first show the number in Base 10 blocks. For instance let's use 43 divided by 3. The child represents the 43 using 4 ten strips and 3 single cubes. When they begin to divide the Base 10 blocks into 43, they soon discover that they have 1 ten strip left over, they trade it for 10 single units and continue sharing the units into the 3 groups. When students have enough experience with this process, they are usually ready to move onto the standard divisional algorithm.
Buy Base 10 Blocks
Print the Pattern to Cut Out for Base 10