Division made easy: Story-based learning approach for Primary 2

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Mathematics can often be a challenging subject for young learners, especially when it comes to division. However, with the right approach and tools, division can be made easy and even enjoyable.

In this blog post, we'll discuss an innovative story-based approach that can help your child understand and master division in no time. 

Why a story-based approach can help your child learn division

A story-based approach to learning division can be highly beneficial for children. Not only does it provide an enjoyable and engaging way of teaching this often challenging concept, but it also helps children gain a better understanding of the logic and principles behind division. By incorporating stories and relevant scenarios into the learning process, this approach encourages students to think critically about the material, enabling them to develop a deeper understanding of the concept.

For example, let's take a look at a simple story that could be used to explain division:

The division story

Once upon a time, in a small quaint village, four friends were looking for something to do on their day off. Alex, Bella, Charlie, and Daisy had spent the afternoon exploring different parts of the village and decided that they should end their day with something special. With their tummies all rumbling in anticipation, they chose to share a large cake for dessert.

The cake was cut into 12 equal slices and Alex suggested that they divide the cake equally among themselves. 

Bella, a little confused by his suggestion, asked how they were going to do this. 

Charlie realised that they should count the number of people present and divide the slices accordingly. 

Daisy and Alex agreed that they all should get an equal amount of cake. So, they counted how many people were there and found out there were four of them, so if they split the cake into four parts, each person would get three slices.

Here, David and Alex performed a simple division:
12 (total number of cake slices) divided by 4 (number of people) = 3 (number of slices that each person gets).
i.e.  \(12 \div 4 = 3\).

To their surprise however, two guests had come to visit them unannounced and wanted to share in their dessert too! 

Alex instantly felt guilty for having overlooked these visitors and wondered how they could now divide the cake fairly between everyone. 

After some thought, Bella suggested that they divide the cake into six equal portions, so that everyone would receive two slices. Alex and Daisy quickly agreed with the idea, and Charlie set out to make the necessary calculations to evenly distribute the cake. After carefully measuring out each slice, each person got two slices of cake and their guests were happy that they had something sweet too.

So, Bella divided
12 (total cake slices) by 6 (4 friends + 2 guests) to get 2 slices each.
i.e.  \(12 \div 6 = 2\).

Everyone was pleased with their efforts in dividing the cake equally between all of them, and it also served as a good reminder for them that division can be a useful tool when trying to share resources fairly and evenly. They also learned from this experience how important it is to consider everyone when dividing tasks or goods.

After dessert, they went to play basketball. When they went to the field, they saw their friend Ben was already on the field. They asked Ben to join them in their basketball game. 

They had one basketball and wanted to play a game with 2 teams. 

Charlie said, "Let's count the number of players and divide them into 2 equal teams." 

They counted and found out that there were 7 players.

Daisy said, "If we divide 7 players into 2 equal teams,each team has 3 players, and we will have 1 player left over." 

So, in terms of division, when we have left overs, we call them "remiainders". So, Mathematically, the formula will look like this:
\(7 \div 2 = 3 \text{ R 1 player}\).

Alex thought for a moment and said, "Let's play a game between the two teams, and the winning team gets the player that's left for the next games."

So they played a mini-game, and the winning team got to play with 1 extra player in their team for the next games. 

Then, they spent the next hour playing a fun game of basketball and learned about division with remainders.

From that day on, Alex, Bella, Charlie, and Daisy always remembered how to divide things equally, even when the situation was a bit more complicated. They also learned that division can be a fun and useful skill to have in life.