Classroom Activities: Dividing with Remainders

These classroom activities are designed to complement the Dividing with Remainders topic on BrainPOP Jr.

Divide It
Give a set of counters to pairs or a small group. Can they divide the counters equally? Have students write a division sentence. Then add another person to the group. Can they divide the counters equally now? Have them write another division sentence. Keep adding more members to groups or increasing the number of counters they receive. What changes to the number of people or the number of counters must be made in order to divide equally?

Only 2 Remain
As a challenge, have students make up their own division sentences or division story problems where the solution has a remainder of 2. You might want to give the following example to get them started: “Moby, Annie, and Mia play a game. There are 17 cards. How many does each person get? How many are left over?” Help students realize that 17 ÷ 3 = 5 R2. They can use multiplication and addition to check their work.