What Is Division?

Imagine you have 15 cupcakes. 🧁

You want to divide them equally among 3 friends.

How many cupcakes does each friend get? 🤔

To find the answer, you can use division!

You learned a little about division in 3rd grade.

Let's review.

Division Using Models

      Division is splitting a number into equal groups.

For example, here we have 15 cupcakes, that need to be split into 3 groups.

How many cupcakes are in each group?

Yes, there are 5 cupcakes in each group.

You just divided 15 by 3. 🤗

We can write this division as an equation:

15 divided by 3 = 5

or

15 ÷ 3 = 5

÷ is the division sign, and we read it as 'divided by'. You can also write division with /, a forward slash.

15 / 3 = 5

Tip: division is the opposite of multiplication!

Parts of a Division Equation

A division equation can be written in either sentence form or long division form.

Every division equation has 3 parts:

      The dividend is the big number that gets divided up.

      The divisor is how many equal groups to divide the dividend into.

      The quotient is the answer to the division problem. It's how many there are in each group after you divide.

Division Equation Pairs

Look at these two ways to divide 24:

____24 ÷ 4 = 6

24 ÷ 6 = 4

What do these equations tell you?

That's right!

      Every division equation has a pair. Just swap the divisor and quotient.

Here are some more division pairs:

18 ÷ 2 = 9
18 ÷ 9 = 2

56 ÷ 7 = 8
56 ÷ 8 = 7

12 ÷ 4 = 3
12 ÷ 3 = 4

Division From Models

Now, let's try writing division equations for picture models.

Example 1

Let's write a division equation for this picture together.

To find the dividend, or big number, we count the total number of circles.

There are 12 total circles. ✅

So, 12 is the dividend.

12 ÷ ____ = ?

Now, how many groups do you see in the picture?

That's right!

There are 4 groups in the picture.

So, 4 is the divisor.

12 ÷ 4 = ?

Finally, how many circles are there in each group?

Very good! There are 3 circles in each group. ✅ 

So, 3 is the quotient.

12 ÷ 4 = 3

Nice job! You made a division equation from a diagram.

Example 2

Can you write a division equation for this model?

First, let's count the total circles in the picture.

There are 32 total circles. ✅

So, 32 is the dividend.

32 ÷ ____ = ?

Next, let's count the number of groups in the picture.

There are 4 groups. ✅

So, 4 is the divisor.

32 ÷ 4 = ?

Now, let's count how many circles there are in each group.

There are 8 circles in each group.

So, 8 is the quotient.

32 ÷ 4 = 8

Way to go! 👏

Now, you know the basics of division. 

Next, let's practice the skill.