“Does McDonald’s Sell Cheese Burger Recipes?” is an acronym idea introducing long division

Title – Does McDonald’s Sell Cheese Burger Recipes?

By – Jessica

Primary Subject – Math

Grade Level – 4-5

This is a GREAT way to introduce long division. I continue to use this in my classroom until all students have the steps memorized!

D

oes

M

cDonald’s

S

ell

C

heese

B

urger

R

ecipes?
Explain to the students that the answer to this question is not what is important, but instead – that the letters that begin each word form what we call an acronym.

I have the students first “predict” how many digits are going to be in the quotient, by looking carefully at the dividend. If the problem was 316 / 4, I would cover up the dividend with a Post-it and ask the students:

“Does 4 go into the first digit of the dividend (3)?”

They would answer “no”, so we’d put a zero in that place in the quotient.

Then I reveal the next number of the dividend and ask:

“Does 4 go into the first 2 digits of the dividend (31)?”

They would answer “yes”, so we’d place a box in that place in the quotient, showing that a digit will be there. I would continue in this fashion for however many digits there are in the dividend.

In the above example, I’d ask next “does 4 go into the first 3 digits of the dividend (316)?” and we’d place the second box in the quotient, showing that the quotient will be 2-digits in length.

Next, I have the students write the acronym for each box they placed in the quotient, vertically next to the problem. In this case, they’d write it twice:

As they solve the problem, they need to check off each step as it is completed. I always remind them that they need to work neatly and keep all digits lined up properly. I have them turn their notebooks sideways, so that they have columns to write their numbers in.

Note from LessonPlansPage.com:

It might also be fun to challenge the class to invent their own acronym.

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Jessica

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