Operations

Need Equal Sharing Activities for your EYFS, Preprimary or Kindergarten classroom? Then look no further! These hands-on math centre activities for sharing into equal groups will surely be a big hit with your kids! Introduce the concept of beginning division, equal sharing, and grouping with these fun math games, printables, puzzles and worksheets.  

Teaching EYFS Division & Equal Shares

Division is the fourth of the Basic Mathematical Operations +, -, x, ÷ and it’s often thought of as one of the more difficult skills to teach and learn. Children find division difficult because it is usually taught in an abstract form with rote learning, symbols and algorithms; rather than hands-on with concrete materials.

Teaching Division can be found in the Number strand of the Mathematics Curriculum and is taught in some format from Kindergarten to Year 6. 

In the Early Years Math Classroom Division is the process of splitting a quantity or an object into equal groups.

In simple terms, the main goal of dividing is to see how many are in each group when sharing fairly.

In technical terms, the division process is where one number (the dividend) is divided by another number (the divisor) to get a third number (the quotient). But this is taught formally much later and is only here for teacher reference!

When first introducing EYFS, Kindergarten, Preprimary and Year 1 students the focus is not on a FORMAL division, process but rather, the idea of Sharing Equally.

Teaching Early Years Students about division should be centred around practical hands-on activities that involve concrete materials where students can explore and discover a range of practical strategies and opportunities to discuss and model the process of sharing.

Kindergarten, Preprimary, and Year 1 Teaching programs should include opportunities and activities that allow students to:

• Develop the language of sharing, division, equal share, fair share, equal groups; using these terms interchangeably
• Role play equal sharing – e.g. take a collection and share between 2 people – “one for you, one for me” and checking that each person has the same amount
• Make equal groups from an amount
• Identify if they are equal shares
• Identify how many each group or person got.
• Link hands-on sharing to number sentences
• Identify the difference between a set of objects into 3 equal groups (sharing) and dividing the same set of objects into groups of 3 (grouping)

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