Divide by 2

You can think about dividing by 2 in two ways.

When you divide by 2, you either share the amount between 2 groups or you divide the amount into groups of 2.

For example, here are 8 counters.

You can share them into 2 groups and count how many counters are in each group. Like this:

We call this sharing.

Or you can divide the amount into groups of 2 and count how many groups you have. Like this:

We call this grouping.

Both ways will give you the same answer. They both show that 8 divided by 2 is 4.

8 ÷ 2 = 4

Why not see how much you know about this topic already? Then complete the guide and see if you can beat your score.

Let’s solve a division problem. ​​You are going to use sharing to help.

You have 6 apples and you want to share them equally between 2 friends.

How many apples do they have each?

You use the division symbol (÷) when you are writing division calculations.

This is how you write the calculation:

6 ÷ 2 =

To solve this, you need to share the 6 apples equally between 2 friends, so you draw 2 sharing circles.

Next, you need to share the apples between the 2 circles.

You must be fair! Each friend must have the same number of apples in their circle.

You can see that each friend has 3 apples in their circle.

Now you can complete the calculation:

6 ÷ 2 = 3

Grouping

Let’s solve another calculation, but this time let's use grouping.

Here are 10 sweets. If you divide them into groups of 2, how many groups of 2 sweets do you have?

To solve this, you need to divide the 10 sweets into groups of 2 and see how many groups you have.

There are 5 groups of 2 sweets.

10 ÷ 2 = 5

Remember, it doesn't matter if you choose to use sharing or grouping to solve division problems, you will get the same answer.

Using the 2 times table

You can also use your knowledge of times tables and skip counting to help divide by 2.

Let’s try the same question and see if we get the same answer!

10 ÷ 2 =

How many 2s are there in 10?

__ × 2 = 10

You can say the 2 times table out loud to help you.

You can also use skip counting to help you. You can skip count in 2s until you get to 10.

You can use your fingers to help with skip counting. Like this:

You can see five 2s are 10 because there are five fingers up.

Using the 2 times table, you know that:

5 × 2 = 10

Therefore:

10 ÷ 2 = 5

Example 2

Example 3