step 1 of 7
The blackbirds took their strawberries yesterday. You counted what was left: 12. Leo, Mia and Sam each hold a plate at the Meadow Lane patch.
How do the 12 strawberries get shared fairly?
Division as equal sharing
Understand division as sharing equally into groups or as grouping (how many groups of a given size can be made)
What a learner can do afterwards
- Share 10 counters equally between 2 plates
- Group 12 objects into sets of 3 and count 4 groups
- Use concrete objects to solve 'How many groups of 2 in 8?'
1 · Read
Division means sharing things equally. Everyone gets the same amount. No one gets more. No one gets less.
Tap each star and count out loud.
Try it together
Leo shares 12 apples between 3 friends. He hands out one apple at a time. Each friend ends up with 4 apples.
Tap each apple and count out loud.
Sometimes you know how many go in each group. Put that many in a group. Then make another group the same size. Keep going until nothing is left. Last, count the groups. 10 stars in groups of 5 make 2 groups.
Good to know
Share one thing at a time. Go around the group again and again. Stop when nothing is left. Count how many each person has. When you make groups instead, count the groups.
Sharing equally means everyone gets the same amount, until nothing is left.
Reading summaries adapted from OpenStax Prealgebra (CC BY 4.0), openstax.org.
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3 · Play
Take it off screen
Print a worksheetA4 with an answer key page for grown-ups. No screen, no internet.
Where it sits
Learn first
Then practise
17 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.