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Watch: Divide by two

Learn to divide by two.

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How to divide by two

Here are 6 frogs.

6 frogs.

To divide them by 2, we share them equally into 2 groups:

Two groups of frogs.

There are 3 in each group, so 6 divided by 2 is 3, or:

6 Ă· 2 = 3

This is related to the 2 times table fact 3 x 2 = 6.

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Example 1

Here are 10 cakes.

Group of cakes.

To divide them by 2 we share them equally into 2 groups.

Two groups of cakes.

There are 5 in each group, so 10 divided by 2 is 5, or:

10 Ă· 2 = 5

This is related to the 2 times table fact 5 x 2 = 10.

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Example 2

Here are 12 butterflies.

12 butterflies.

Group them into pairs.

Pairs of butterflies.

How many pairs are there? There are 6 pairs.

12 Ă· 2 = 6 or 6 x 2 = 12

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Example 3

Sindhu and Selasi have 16 spiders between them. They share them equally. How many do they each get?

Spiders.

There are 16 spiders altogether.

Divided them into two equal groups.

Groups of spiders.

There are 8 spiders in each group. So you can say that:

16 Ă· 2 = 8

Sindhu and Selasi each get 8 spiders.

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Example 4

A girl asking a question

Becky has some counters and she shares them equally with her friend Sophie. They each have 17 counters. How many counters did Becky start with?

2 groups of 17 is the same as 34.

34 divided equally into 2 groups is 17.

34 Ă· 2 = 17

So Becky must have started with 34 counters.

A girl asking a question
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Activity

Quiz

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