Understanding Division in Year 2
This week in Year 2, we’ve been diving into the world of division—and it’s been a lot of fun! We’ve explored different ways to divide, helping us to understand what it means to share and group numbers. Here’s a little peek into what we’ve been learning and how you can help at home.
Dividing by Grouping – Using Beadstrings
We began by using beadstrings to help us see what division looks like. For example, we looked at 20 beads and asked: “How many groups of 5 can we make?” The children grouped the beads into fives and counted how many full groups they had. This showed that:
20 divided by 5 equals 4 (20 ÷ 5 = 4)
Using real objects like beadstrings helps children visualise what dividing into equal groups means.
Dividing with Arrays
Next, we used arrays—rows and columns of objects—to show grouping in another way. If we had 12 counters and arranged them into rows of 3, we could see how many groups we had. This reinforced the idea of division being about equal groups:
12 divided by 3 equals 4 (12 ÷ 3 = 4)
It also helped us see how multiplication and division are connected!
Linking Multiplication to Division
One of the big ideas we explored is how multiplication and division are the inverse of each other. For example:
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If 5 × 5 = 25, then 25 ÷ 5 = 5
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If 3 × 4 = 12, then 12 ÷ 3 = 4
Understanding this link helps children move confidently between multiplying and dividing.
Sharing and Remainders
We also discussed dividing by sharing, where we shared objects between people or groups. Sometimes, we noticed that not everything could be shared equally—this introduced us to the idea of remainders. For example:
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If we have 10 sweets and share them between 3 people, each person gets 3 sweets, with 1 left over.
That’s: 10 ÷ 3 = 3 remainder 1
Try These at Home!
Here are three simple things you can do at home to support your child’s understanding of division:
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🔢 Use household items (e.g. buttons or pasta) to make groups—ask questions like “Can we split these into groups of 4?”
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🎲 Play the inverse game: Give your child a multiplication fact and ask them to provide a division fact using the inverse e.g Adult: 2 x 5 =10. Can you use the inverse of this multiplication to give me a division fact (using the same numbers)? Child: 10 ➗ 2 = 5.
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🍏 Snack sharing: Share out fruit or crackers between family members and ask, “How many does each person get? Are there any left over?”
Division can be fun, hands-on, and practical—keep exploring it together!