3rd Grade Division: Concepts and Practice Exercises

Division for 3rd Graders

Quotients and Equal Groups

Concepts

Students learn to divide whole numbers and learn to see a problem such as 72 ÷ 9 = 8 in two ways. First, students understand that there are eight items in each group when 72 items are separated into nine equal groups. Second, they understand that if you separate 72 items into eight equal groups, there will be nine items in each.

Exercises

Students can practice applying quotients and equal groups by completing simple division problems like the ones below.

1. ? ÷ 10 = 10 (Answer: 100)
   
   
2. 36 ÷ 4 = ? (Answer: 9)
   
   
3. 36 ÷ ? = 4 (Answer: 9)
   
   
4. ? ÷ 9 = 9 (Answer: 81)
   
   
5. 42 ÷ 6 = ? (Answer: 7)

Relationships and Division Facts

Concepts

Students in 3rd grade also learn how division and multiplication are related. After learning their multiplication facts, students can understand that reversing multiplication problems gives them the division facts. For example, they see that 9 x 8 = 72 can be reversed into two division problems: 72 ÷ 9 = 8 and 72 ÷ 8 = 9. Students also use these facts to solve word problems that include equal groups, numbers that indicate measurements and arrays.

Exercises

1. There is an apple tree in Judy's yard. One day she picked 6 apples and gave equal amounts to 3 friends. How many apples did she give to each friend? (Solution: 6 ÷3 = 2 apples for each friend)
   
   
2. Mary was going to celebrate her birthday at school. Her mother got 40 balloons to decorate the classroom. She arranged them in groups of 4. How many groups of balloons were there? (Solution: 40 ÷ 4 = 10 groups of balloons)
   
   
3. Everyday for the last 7 days, John rode his bike the same distance. He rode a total of 28 miles during that time. How many miles did he ride each day? (Solution: 28 ÷ 7 = 4 miles each day)
   
   
4. If you have an array of 21 blocks having 7 rows, how many columns of blocks will there be? (Solution: 21 ÷ 7 = 3 columns)
   
   
5. The clothing store has 28 shirts that are evenly divided onto 2 shelves. How many shirts are on each shelf? (Solution: 28 ÷ 2 = 14 shirts on each shelf)