Math Strategy: Empty Groups and Fair Sharing

How do we use the math strategy, 'Empty Groups and Fair Sharing' to divide?

Math Strategy: Empty Groups and Fair Sharing
Math Strand: Number Sense and Numeration

Overview:
At the beginning of using this strategy to divide, a student may share counters out equally by one into the empty groups. The number of empty groups is determined by the divisor. As they become more proficient students may share equally by other numbers (ex. 2, 5, 10). Students will determine the quotient when they count the number of counters in each group.

How this Supports Student Learning:

This strategy helps students see that division is about the whole (dividend) being shared equally. Creating the empty groups helps students identify the purpose of the divisor. Questions posed within a context allows students to connect their personal experiences to the mathematical structure of division. Students naturally understand fair sharing but do not naturally write this in a math sentence.

Where to Next:

As students grasp this strategy and begin to work with higher numbers, the teacher can encourage efficiency by challenging the student to use skip counting with larger intervals. For example, 150 divided by 3 could be shared out by 10s.



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