Fun Division Activities for Elementary Students

How to Practice Division at Home

As adults, we frequently solve simple division problems as part of our everyday lives. You can help your child practice division by pointing out these real-world situations and having your child apply his or her developing skills. For instance, if you're shopping with your child, and you see that the store has a sale - five shirts for $20 - you can ask your child to figure out how much each shirt costs. He or she should divide 20 by five to determine that each shirt costs $4.

You also can use physical objects to help your child visualize division. If your child is just being introduced to division, you might give him 15 counters and ask him to distribute them into five piles. Your child will see that there are three counters in each pile. This represents the equation 15 ÷ 5 = 3.

The following activities include either real-world situations or physical objects. Keep in mind that the best activities for your child will likely be ones that he or she finds interesting and fun.

Division Activities

Dinner Time Division

Ask your child to serve everyone equally at dinner. For example, if there are four people and eight slices of pizza, your child must solve a simple division problem (8 ÷ 4 = 2) to figure out how many slices each person should get.

Card Game

Turn a card game into division practice. Have your child be the dealer and distribute the 52 cards to four players. Ask your child to calculate how many cards each player will get. To solve, he or she will have to divide 52 by 4 to determine that each player should receive 13 cards. After this practice, you, your child and two other friends or family members can enjoy a fun game of cards.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Make cookie dough with your child and, before baking the cookies, have your child calculate how many chocolate chips should go on top of each cookie. For instance, if you have 50 chocolate chips and eight cookies, you can put six chocolate chips on each cookie, and there will be two chocolate chips leftover (50 ÷ 8 = 6 R2). Division problems with remainders are good practice if your child is ready to tackle problems with larger numbers.

Sale Items

Take your child shopping with you, and ask him or her to use long division to find the best sale items. He or she likely will need a pencil and some scrap paper. Consider the following example: Brand 1 has eight rolls of paper towels on sale for $12. Brand 2 has four rolls of paper towels on sale for $8. Which is the better deal?

This problem requires two division problems: 12 ÷ 8 = 1.5 and 8 ÷ 4 = 2. Brand 1 is the better deal because each roll costs $1.50.