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How to Teach Division – A Simple Step by Step Guide

Division is fourth among the first four basic math operations that a child should learn. These math operations include adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing. They form the basis of all math problems.

Children do not necessarily need to know the first three operations to understand division, although, as we will see, they are crucial. Teaching a youngster to divide is not as challenging as it may appear.

Concept of Division

Young students usually dread division as they believe it’s daunting. But it shouldn’t be. Generally, division includes sharing evenly according to the number of groups required. For this reason, you can link division to the idea of sharing equally.

Several items, for instance, might be split fairly between a group. In a real-world scenario, three groups of three friends would share nine apples so that each would get three. Simple division is better understood through grouping and sharing methods.

How to Teach Division to a Child

Division is not as difficult to learn or teach as many people believe. Any parent or educator may easily master a simple method of teaching division. As a result, even a little child may understand it without much difficulty.

Here is a detailed guide on how to divide step by step, from the basics to long division. The progressive method allows for more accurate evaluation of the child’s ability to solve division issues. Keep in mind that the success of your lessons depends on how interesting and enjoyable you make them for your students.

Step 1: Introduce Basic Division

For a child to understand simple division problems, they need to understand the division strategy.

To begin, teach your youngster about division as a method of sharing. A child will likely have an easier time grasping division using this method. So, add incentives like candy to the drill.

Second, show the youngster how to physically separate the candy into smaller piles and ask them to do it. Ask a kid to do simple tasks like sharing eight cookies into four equal groups. This indicates that the groups should have an equal distribution of cookies. In this scenario, 8 is the dividend (it represents the total number of items/ objects), while 4 is the divisor. There are a total of 8 cookies, and each group has 2.

When a kid has mastered the skill of grouping, you may teach the symbols for division. To represent the division on paper, you’ll need to use both the division symbol (÷) and the forward slash (/). You could also practice saying it out loud while writing it on a worksheet. A child’s understanding is improved when the process is made clear to them. From the above scenario, 8 divided by 4 can be written as 8÷4 or 8/4.

Now, if the youngster already understands multiplication, easy division problems may be simpler to teach. You’ll be instrumental in their realization that division is the inverse operation of multiplication. This procedure may be shown with the use of a times table. For example, check on the times tables 2×4 = 8 and then illustrate that 8÷4= 2. Then do 2×3=6 and 6÷3=2. The process should be repeated often or until the youngster grasps the connection between the two operations.

Finally, give your youngster a few basic division problems to measure their learning ability. However, be sure the numbers you use can be divided evenly. For example, 12÷4, 6÷3, 8÷2, 15÷5, etc. You can help them repeat this step, from dividing cookies into groups to using the times table.

Step 2: Working Out Division with Remainders

If a child already understands basic division problems, including how to divide numbers evenly, you can now proceed to the next step. This step entails working with remainders where numbers can’t be divided evenly.

To illustrate the idea of remainders in division, you may use tangible objects like candy and building blocks. As a first step, tally up the number of sweets that cannot be divided into equal groups. You may give the youngster 9 candies and tell them to split them into 4 groups, or 15 candies and tell them to divide them into 6 groups.

Since each of the four groups would have two candies under the first scenario, there would be a residual of 1. In the second scenario, three candies would be left over since each of the six groups would only contain four candies. A kid will get an understanding of remainders, the numbers left behind after division.

You should then write down the division problem on a worksheet. For example, 9÷4= 2 remainder 1 and 15÷6= 2 remainder 3.

A child’s understanding of division with remainders will improve if they are exposed to more problems like 7÷2, 10÷3, 15÷4, 20÷7, 25÷10, etc. Students should practice until they confidently explain why they have remainders in each category without your help. You may let them use candy or other objects if they need to do grouping.

Step 3: Teach Long Division

As was said before, teaching a child to divide is an ongoing process. If a youngster has mastered the first two stages of division, then they are ready to go on to the next level. Long division for kids is a bit of a technical skill to master. Long division is challenging for most kids, but not for one who knows the basic inverse of the times table and how to calculate remainders.

Usually, long division repeats the fundamental procedures of dividing, multiplying, subtracting, and dropping to the next digit.

Children need to be introduced to the idea of even division for kids before they can grasp long division. A divisor divides each hundred, ten, and one equally. The child gets used to knowing and practicing how often a divisor goes into various digits of a dividend.

The next step of easy long division builds on previous knowledge of multiplication and subtraction. You apply multiplication and subtraction in the easiest possible place at the end of the division, i.e., the one’s column where you have the remainder. However, if you have a remainder in the tens in the long division algorithm, you divide, multiply, subtract, and then drop to the next digit.

Divide 254 by 2

In the above scenario, 2 goes into 2 once; therefore, we got 1 (placed above the long division sign). We can also say 2 divided by 2 is 1.

Multiply and subtract:

Now, let’s work out the remaining 54.

2×2=4, write the 4 below 5 and subtract to find the remainder. The remainder is 1 of the ten.

Drop the next digit

Next, drop the 4 of the ones next to the 1 of the ten left. Now, you have 14. 

Now divide 2 into 14. The same concept of multiply will re-occur, whereby 2×7= 14. Write the 7 above the division sign and 14 under 14. Once again, the subtraction will re-occur whereby 14-14=0.

The result of dividing 254 by 2 is 127.

Final Thought

For young students, learning division may be particularly challenging. However, the above approach covers how to do simple division and progress to long division.

Keep in mind that teaching kids division is a slow process. Students remember more of what they learn when the learning process is engrossing. A kid who regularly practices division problems frequently will become an expert.