Sharing and grouping

Hello, and welcome to Myriora Maths! Here are twelve sweets. There are two different ways to divide them, and they ask two different questions. Let's look at both!

First, sharing. Share twelve sweets fairly between three children. Give them out one at a time: one for you, one for you, one for you. Keep going until they're all gone. Each child gets four sweets.

We write it like this. Twelve, divided by three, equals four. The divide sign means share out, or split up.

Now grouping. Put the twelve sweets into bags of three. How many bags can you fill? One, two, three, four bags! Twelve divided by three is four again.

Why do both give four? Put the sweets in an array: three rows of four. Each row is one child's share: four sweets. Each column is one bag of three, and there are four columns. It's the same twelve sweets, looked at in two ways!

Let's try one together. Share ten sweets between two children. How many does each child get? Say it out loud!

One for you, one for you, until they're all gone. Each child gets five. Ten divided by two is five!

Here's a question that catches lots of people. What is twelve divided by three? Some people take three away, and say nine. But dividing isn't taking away! Twelve shared between three is four each.

Your turn! Fifteen apples go into bags of five. How many bags do you need? Pick the right card. You've got fifteen seconds, or pause the video. Go!

Time's up! Count in fives: five, ten, fifteen. That's three bags. Fifteen divided by five is three!

Quick review. Sharing means splitting fairly: how many each? Grouping means making equal groups: how many groups? And both are written with the divide sign. See you next time!