Teaching article
Division by sharing: how many does each recipient get?
Divide a collection into a stated number of equal groups and check every group.
Start with a known collection and a known number of recipients. Sharing equally answers the question of how much each receives; name that unknown before comparing the model with another kind of division task.
Distribute the collection equally among the stated recipients. The unknown in this model is the number each recipient receives.
Keep the recipient count fixed
- Share one counter at a time.
- Check the groups are equal.
- State how many each receives.
Twelve shared equally among three groups gives four in each group.
Equal sharing requires attention to every group.
Can the groups be recombined to check twelve? Let a partner move counters while the learner directs.
Resources
- Maths Puzzle Generator — Choose arithmetic or missing-number questions only when they match the number relationship being explored.
Further reading
Read next
- Division by grouping: how many groups can we make?
- Put a fraction on a line with zero and one
- Before and after: locate the reference number first
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