Equal groups: multiplying and dividing
Put apples into equal groups, build arrays and see how multiplying and dividing fit together.
- UK: Year 1
- France: grade 1
- Germany: grade 2
- Iran: grade 3
- Afghanistan: grade 2
- Syria: grade 2
- Palestine: grade 2
- Ukraine: grade 2
- Russia: grade 2
Guide
This studio covers Year 1–3 work on multiplication and division. Your child works with counters and answers by tapping a number.
Here 3 × 4 means "3 groups of 4", which is 4 + 4 + 4 (repeated addition). A common slip is to add the two numbers (3 + 4 = 7).
Division has two meanings: sharing (share 12 apples between 3 plates: how many on each?) and grouping (put 15 counters into groups of 5: how many groups?). Both are answered by a multiplication fact: 3 × 5 = 15, so 15 ÷ 5 = 3.
Turning an array shows that 4 × 5 = 5 × 4 (the commutative property), and splitting one shows that 4 × 7 = 4 × 5 + 4 × 2 (the distributive property).