Division Basics

1Sharing Equally

Division means sharing things into equal groups. If you have 12 cookies and 3 friends, you give each friend 4 cookies. That is 12 ÷ 3 = 4.

The symbol ÷ means "divided by." We read 12 ÷ 3 as "twelve divided by three." The answer is called the quotient.

2Division and Multiplication

Division is the opposite of multiplication. If 3 × 4 = 12, then 12 ÷ 3 = 4 and 12 ÷ 4 = 3. They are best friends!

This means if you know your times tables, you already know division. The answer to 20 ÷ 5 is the same as asking: "5 times what equals 20?" The answer is 4.

3Real-Life Division

We use division every day. Splitting a pizza among friends. Sharing candy. Dividing a class into teams. Cutting a recipe in half.

Try this: you have 24 stickers and want to put 6 on each page of your notebook. How many pages will you fill? 24 ÷ 6 = 4 pages. Division makes life fair!

★Explore

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