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What does 15 ÷ 3 mean?

What mathematics do we need to be able to solve this problem?

This sign ÷ means divide.

There are two ways to divide:

• sharing
• grouping

Sharing can look like this.

Here are 15 counters. Can you share the counters equally onto three plates?

How many counters are there on each plate?

15 counters shared on to 3 plates makes 5. Or you could write:

15 ÷ 3 = 5

Grouping looks like this.

Here are 15 counters.

How many groups of 3 are there hiding in 15?

15 ÷ 3 = 5

Top tip

Sharing and grouping are ways of solving a division problem.

Sharing is a good method when the numbers are quite small.

Grouping is a good method when the numbers start to get bigger.

Let’s look at dividing by 5 by grouping.

What is 30 ÷ 5?

I need 30 objects and I need to put them into groups of 5.

The answer is the number of equal groups you have after grouping all your objects.

Here are 30 cubes.

How many groups of 5 are there?

There are 6 equal groups of 5. So:

30 ÷ 5 = 6

What is the answer to 45 ÷ 5?

Look at the question.

• How many things do you need?

• How big do the groups need to be?

Here are 45 cubes.

Here are the same 45 cubes put into equal groups of 5.

There are 9 groups. Therefore:

45 ÷ 5 = 9

Here is another way to solve division problems. Count on in equal groups of 5.

Put your hands out in front of you, palms facing up, like this.

Starting on the left with you thumb, count on in 5s until you reach 35.

How many fingers did you use?

There are 7 groups of 5 in 35. So:

35 ÷ 5 = 7

Using your fingers and counting on in 5s, solve these division problems.

• 20 ÷ 5 =
• 25 ÷ 5 =
• 50 ÷ 5 =