Short division

Okay kiddo, let's talk about short division! Have you ever shared a candy bar with a friend? Well, that's a little bit like short division. Short division is a way of splitting up a big number into smaller groups or parts.

Let's say I have 12 candies and I want to share them equally with 3 of my friends. We can use short division to figure out how many candies each person gets.

First, we write the big number (in this case, 12) and draw a division symbol (÷). Next, we write the smaller number (in this case, 3) next to the division symbol.

12 ÷ 3

Now, we have to figure out how many candies each person gets. We start with the first digit of the big number (in this case, 1).

We ask ourselves:
"Can we divide 1 by 3?"
The answer is no, because 3 is too big to fit into 1.

So we move on to the next digit (in this case, 12). We ask ourselves:
"Can we divide 12 by 3?"
The answer is yes! 3 can fit into 12 four times.

We write the number 4 above the 2 in 12, and multiply 3 by 4 to get 12. Then we subtract 12 from 12 to get zero.

4
___
3 | 12
9
___
3
___

Now, we bring down the next digit (if there is one), and ask ourselves:
"Can we divide 3 by 3?"
The answer is yes! 3 can fit into 3 one time.

We write the number 1 above the 3, and multiply 3 by 1 to get 3. Then we subtract 3 from 3 to get zero.

4 R0
___
3 | 12
9
___
3
___
0

That's it! Each person will get 4 candies. So we can say that 12 ÷ 3 = 4. We used short division to divide the big number (12) into smaller groups (of 3) to find out how many each person gets.

I hope that helps you understand short division!