Can We Share? - Basic Division Facts

Division is the process of Equal Sharing or Equal Grouping. Imagine you have $15$ chocolates and $3$ friends; sharing them equally means each friend gets exactly $5$ chocolates. Visually, this looks like $3$ circles with $5$ dots inside each circle.

Repeated Subtraction is another way to understand division. To solve $12 \div 4$, you keep subtracting $4$ from $12$ until you reach zero: $12 - 4 = 8$, $8 - 4 = 4$, and $4 - 4 = 0$. Since we subtracted $4$ three times, $12 \div 4 = 3$.

Every division statement has three main parts: The Dividend (the total number being divided), the Divisor (the number of groups or the size of each group), and the Quotient (the answer). For example, in $20 \div 5 = 4$, $20$ is the dividend, $5$ is the divisor, and $4$ is the quotient.

Division is the Inverse of Multiplication. They are part of the same 'Fact Family'. If you know that $3 \times 6 = 18$, you automatically know that $18 \div 3 = 6$ and $18 \div 6 = 3$.

Properties of 1 and 0: When any number is divided by $1$, the quotient is the number itself ($7 \div 1 = 7$). When a number is divided by itself, the quotient is $1$ ($9 \div 9 = 1$). When $0$ is divided by any number, the quotient is always $0$ ($0 \div 5 = 0$).

Division with Remainder: Sometimes things cannot be shared exactly equally. If you share $11$ balls between $2$ children, each gets $5$ balls and $1$ ball is left over. This leftover is called the Remainder. Visually, you see two groups of $5$ and one single ball sitting outside the groups.