Well, the new school year is officially underway. We touched division last year briefly, but fourth grade here is where we need to get our division facts down cold. Of course, the goal is working up to those long division worksheets but to get there, you really need to establish a solid grounding in the division facts first.

Unfortunately, division isn’t just multiplication in reverse. Oh yeah, we tell them that and it flies for a while, but then one ugly left over spoils the fun. Remainders. You only get so far into division before this remainder thing pops up, so if you arm your kids with only the “reverse the multiplication” strategy, division quickly develops a reputation as the nightmare operator. We relied heavily on the idea that addition and subtraction had “fact families” and you could always reverse them, but that clean relationship just isn’t there for multiplication and division. I mean, what’s the corresponding multiplication fact for 5 / 2 = 2 r 1 ? 2.5 x 2 ? We don’t get closure here until we’ve introduced fractions and decimals… Perhaps division’s reputation as a monster is a bit deserved. Either way, this post describes the various sets of division worksheets on the site to help you introduce division and remainders successfully.

There are a number of different ways to tackle division. The conventional RocketMath division problems work by progressively introducing a handful of division facts in a series of drills. We started with these worksheets here. The issue though is right at RocketMath Division Level G, division by divisors larger than the dividend is introduced and the answer (quotient) for all of these problems is given as zero (i.e., no wholes and the remainder is ignored.) This sweeps the whole remainder issue under the carpet, but when we circled back for actual division with remainders we struggled to get rid of this concept. I heard “Zero!” so many times when we were working steps in a long division problem here that I wish we’d never seen this treatment introduced. If your school is using either the RocketMath or Mastering Math Facts curriculum,  you may find these division drills useful, but you may save yourself some “unlearning” by taking an alternate path.

Another approach is to introduce initially only the division facts that are perfect reversals of multiplication. This does ignore remainders initially, but it also doesn’t introduce a behavior that makes you think you can ignore them either. The SpaceShip Math Division Just Whole Facts series of worksheets does exactly this. In fact, once this series of worksheets has been completed, you could even step into the Long Division without Remainders worksheets to introduce the long division algorithm. We didn’t follow this route here, but the whole divide/multiply/subtract/bring-down process reinforces the relationship between digits in the quotient to each digit in the dividend, and I think that subtraction step might set up a notion of what the remainder thing is all about.

Whether you tackle introduce long division or not, after the core whole division facts are down, it’s time to introduce remainders in their full glory. The best success we had here over the summer was in simply drilling the division with remainder facts, just like any of the other basic operations.

The SpaceShip Math Division Focus on Remainders worksheets introduces division facts with remainders progressively by increasing the divisor as you go up levels. By starting with lower number divisors, the remainder is pretty easily to calculate and the concepts build up before you get to large remainders that aren’t quite as easy to recognize off the top of the head.

Another shorter series introduces remainders in a slightly different way. The Division with Progressive Remainders Worksheets introduce problems where the remainders increase (the whole part of the quotient may be larger, however). This is a similar approach to the SpaceShip math sheets mentioned above, but it does introduce the problems in a slightly different order that may help if the first series of worksheets seems to be a struggle.

The main division worksheet page also has practice worksheets for a variety of other division topics, including focuses on cubes and roots, factors of ten and powers of two. Of course, your real goal should be to get to the long division worksheets reasonably quickly, which will exercise all of those division facts (with and without remainders) probably much more than your little math fiends will care for. Dad’s supply of Pokemon reward packs is definitely dwindling.

Division has been a longer term project here, and I hope the different approaches are valuable to you. Let me know what worked and what didn’t in the comments below. And best of luck for the 2009/2010 school year!

Dr. Donald Crawford paid a visit to DadsWorksheets.com last week and suggested perhaps renaming the worksheets posted here to avoid conflict with the commercial Rocket Math curriculum he has developed over at http://www.rocketmath.net. You can read the discussion at the bottom of the Spaceship Math Strategy post, but given that this is supposed to be a low-stress activity on my end, changing the names of the worksheets to address everyone’s concern was definitely easy.

Meanwhile, if you’re a teacher looking to purchase a full curriculum for Rocket Math, be sure to check out Dr. Crawford’s new web site at the link above.

Or, if you’re not interested in worksheets or rockets or curricula, and you’d rather just bounce through a very well designed on-line math quiz, check out what this other Dad did at http://www.Rocket-Math.com.

Just how hard will a kid work for some random bit of electronic widgetry? Say, one of the new shiny polychrome 4G iPods that His Steveness just showed off to us yesterday? It turns out, really hard. Especially when Engadget and everyone else starts leaking pictures of the brand new goods right before the deadline.

The oldest and I signed a contract a few weeks ago delineating exactly what she would need to do in order to score said gadget (we’re getting a little contract law education mixed in here, too.) To wit, the requirements included:

• 30 Pages in the Math Made Easy Fourth Grade Workbook
• The last half of the Scholastic 3rd Grade Math Practice Book
• Read Molly Moon’s Incredible Book of Hypnotism
• Read the first 10 chapters of Story of the World Volume 2
• Pass a 14 minute timed test for Rocket Math Subtraction Levels N – Z
• Pass a 14 minute timed test for Rocket Math Multiplication Levels A – M

We set a goal of six weeks to get this all accomplished. This was definitely a stretch goal… A swing-for-the-fences, “Well, if you really want that you’re going to work hard for it” sort of task. I actually thought this might be the object lesson about over committing and not crossing the finish line, especially once school started and we hadn’t completed the last two items. Little did I realize, what was about to happen was a serious test of my ability to grade Rocket Math tests.

The stack of tests pictured here is 22mm high when compressed. A ream of the paper we use here is just over 50mm, so that would be around 220 pages. And if only that were all of them. That’s just the stack of tests from Saturday and Sunday. While that was definitely the big push before the deadline, there were at least that many in the previous weeks… Actually, I think I may have graded close to 600 pages of Rocket Math in the last month or so. Go ahead and quiz me on some basic subtraction. I dare you.

And yes, we’re headed for the Apple Store.

Thanks a lot, Steve.

Welcome to the Rocket Math Spaceship Math home page at DadsWorksheets.com.  Below you’ll find direct links to the Spaceship Math practice worksheets for all of the basic operations. Also, you’ll find a convenient web-based timer for administering practice tests.

Everything you need to rocket your kid’s math performance straight into orbit is below. If you find these materials useful, be sure to check out the rest of the math related content on the site. Good luck!

Please note that Spaceship Math is not the official RocketMath curriculum offered by R&D Instructional Solutions, and as per Dr. Crawford’s request in the discussion below, we’ve renamed the practice worksheets here as ‘Spaceship Math’ to avoid any confusion with the RocketMath commercial product.  Educators interested in using Rocket Math in their classrooms are encouraged to check out http://www.rocketmath.net for details.

Spaceship Math Strategies
Spaceship Math Addition Worksheets
Spaceship Math Subtraction Worksheets
Spaceship Math Multiplication Worksheets
Spaceship Math Division Worksheets
Spaceship Math Practice Timer

Printable Spaceship Math Progress Check Off Pages

Many grade schools now using various types of timed tests for basic arithmetic. This web site was originally created to provide practice worksheets for a time testing program used at a local school district. If your child’s school is using a similar program, these worksheets will provide several variations on the single practice sheet that typically comes home for each lesson.

The Rocket Math programs are typically divided into multiple levels usually identified by letter, where each level introduces a small number of basic facts. The problems on each level are built on the The tests are usually given daily, with each test lasting one minute. Practice on the problems is pretty critical to success, especially if your child isn’t one that works well under the pressure of the clock.

There are different Rocket Math levels for each of the four basic math operations. My kids started with Rocket Math addition in first grade and have generally worked up through the operations year-by-year, (subtraction in second grade, multiplication in third, and, still to come, division in fourth grade.)

For practice here, as part of home work two or three times a week I’ll run off five of the worksheets, usually two from the level my daughter is currently on and then a selection of three from the next two or three levels she’ll likely cover. I’ll then use the free web timer on the site and run a five minute test. Its very critical that you grade the tests and have your child correct anything that’s wrong. In fact, where an answer is consistently wrong, I’ll even resort to having my daughter write the correct math fact out eight or ten times. Memorizing a math fact wrong is simply deadly here and you need to catch this as early as possible when it comes up. Never (never, ever) skip grading a Rocket Math test. Child Protective Services has a special room for parents that let their kids memorize 6×7=56.

Anyway, apart from the raw practice these longer tests give, the logic here is that this is a much longer, harder and more stressful test than what she goes through at school each day. That makes the tests at school seem a whole lot easier by comparison. It does make create something of a motivation factor, and that’s really the key hurdle to overcome.

Motivation around here comes in many forms. It starts with having a positive attitude around the tests, no matter what happens. Reinforce that the practice is what counts (not getting 100% accuracy or completing it on time, even though that’s what you want ultimately.) Passing a particular five minute test under the timer usually merits a high-five and a serious break from whatever’s going on… Maybe a getting a little time on the Wii with Dad or a Godzilla movie or something else fun. We’ll set targets for levels and maybe working up to level ‘N’ means a $20 trip to Toys’R'Us or going out for a Quadruple-Venti Mocha at Starbucks (actually, cocoa for the kids… Dads need motivation, too.)

All the way around, the key here is making the activity fun and engaging. Making this enjoyable at home plus the success this will bring with testing at school will quickly turn Rocket Math into enormously positive experience. Honestly, how great is it to have your kids saying not only that “I’m good at math!” but also “I love math!” This Dad was never so proud.