king dominic divide

As King, I give you this command:

An equal share for every hand.

And when to each has come his share

Then Spring can bloom so sweet and fair.

-from The Four Friends, an Enki Education 1st Grade Math story

This week we worked on division, via King Dominic Divide's verses from the Four Friends math story. We recited Dominic's verses and drew the King with his scepter (which makes up the division sign, as you can see here in J's picture).



Zoo Boy's drawing.

Then we worked out a few word problems. ("King Dominic collected all the packages from Minnie, Paddy, and Max. He had 12 packages in all. He then divided the packages up so that each friend had the same number. How many friends were there? How many packages did each friend get?") J quickly worked out the problem with his gemstones, but Zoo Boy became a little stressed trying to do the same, as he didn't "get it" right away with the first story problem. So I had J do a couple of word problems with division while he watched, then let it drop for the day.

The next day, I dropped a plate with 18 M&Ms on it between the boys. They got excited about the treat, then I told them that they had to divide them up so that we each had our fair share. At first Zoo Boy said nervously "I think J needs to do it!" I reassured him, "That's OK, I don't care who does it, so long as we each end up with the same number of M&Ms." Zoo boy thought about it (J waited patiently, bless his little soul!), then said "Wait, I think I can do it..." and proceeded to divvy up the M&Ms, pointing out that we each got 6. Then, of course, we ate them.

My Dominic picture.


Next week is the last week of this math block. We'll work with some more story problems, and I'll introduce the manipulative bridge work sheet (you'll see what I'm talking about next week). We'll also start learning the Four Friends Math Play, although we won't do more than just read through it once a day at this point. I'm saving memorization and performance of the play until our last math block at the end of June -- seems like a nice way to wrap up the year.