The Fair King and Mr. Divide’s Quest
Once upon a time in the kingdom of Numberland, King was preparing for a grand celebration. He wanted to thank his people for their loyalty by distributing food and treasure equally among them. But the king had one concern: how could he ensure everything was divided fairly?
So, he called upon his trusted friend, Mr. Divide, the wisest mathematician in all the land. Together, they set out to solve this problem.
Out from the golden castle gates marched Mr. Divide, a cheerful and helpful little figure. He had a big, warm smile and eyes that sparkled with kindness. His bright red shirt bore a large white division symbol (÷) at the center, showing everyone his mission: to make sure things were shared fairly. His green-and-white striped pants and a blue cap with a white pompom added a playful charm to his look.
“I am Mr. Divide!” he said with a grin. “I am always fair. I make sure everyone gets a fair and equal share.”
Part 1: Sharing Apples Among Houses
The first task was to divide 15 apples among 5 houses.
The little gnomes began carefully arranging the apples, placing one apple at a time into each house to make sure everyone got a fair share. It was a slow process, and they quickly grew tired.
Just then, Mr. Divide stepped in with a smile and said, “Let me show you an easier way!”
15 ÷ 5 = 3
He explained, “This means each house will receive 3 apples.”
The king was delighted, and the royal messengers delivered the apples. Everyone cheered, grateful for the fair distribution.
Part 2: Packing Bags of Apples
At the king’s command, the little gnomes eagerly began packing the apples into bags. But first, they had to figure out how many bags they would need to hold all 15 apples if each bag could carry exactly 3 apples.
The youngest gnome, Pip, stepped forward with excitement. “Let’s figure it out!” he said, grabbing a stick to draw in the dirt.
The gnomes began arranging the apples into groups of 3. Once they were done, Pip counted the groups carefully and proudly announced, “We need 5 bags!”
To show everyone how he solved it, Pip wrote the equation:
15 ÷ 3 = 5
“Look!” Pip exclaimed with a grin. “We’ve made 5 groups of 3 apples each. Now every bag is perfectly packed!”
The gnomes cheered, feeling proud of their teamwork and Pip’s cleverness.
Part 3: Arranging Apples into Boxes
As the gnomes continued their work, the king gave them another task. “You’ve done well with the bags of apples,” he said. “Now, let’s arrange these apples into boxes for storage. Each box should hold the same number of apples.”
The little gnomes got to work. They began arranging the apples into neat groups inside the boxes. Soon, they realised they could write two different division statements to describe their work.
• First, they counted the total number of apples and the number of boxes. They wrote:
12 ÷ 4 = 3
(There were 12 apples divided into 4 boxes, so each box had 3 apples.)
• Then, they looked at it a different way. They knew how many apples each box would hold (3) and wanted to find out how many boxes they needed. They wrote:
12 ÷ 3 = 4
(If each box holds 3 apples, they need 4 boxes for 12 apples.)
Pip, always excited about math, pointed to the division equations and said, “See? The division helps us figure out both the number of apples in each box and the number of boxes we need!”
Part 4: Sowing Seeds in the Garden
Later, when the gnomes returned home, their mother had a special task for them. She wanted them to sow seeds for their vegetable garden.
“Plant the seeds so that there are 5 columns,” she instructed. “How many seeds will go in each row?”
The gnomes scratched their heads, then lined up the seeds in neat rows. After some counting, they found the answer:
10 ÷ 5 = 2
“There will be 2 seeds in each row,” said Pip, arranging the seeds with a big smile.
While helping his mother with the gardening, the little gnomes discovered a useful math trick:
• If we know the total number of carrots (10) and the number of rows (2), we can find the number of columns:
10 ÷ 2 = 5
(There were 10 carrots planted in 2 rows, so each row had 5 columns.)
• If we know the total number of carrots (10) and the number of columns (5), we can find the number of rows:
10 ÷ 5 = 2
(There were 10 carrots planted in 5 columns, so each column had 2 rows.)
The gnome proudly explained, “By knowing the total and either the number of rows or columns, we can always figure out the other!”
His mother smiled and said, “Well done! The division makes planting so much easier.” The little gnome grinned, happy to combine math and gardening to solve real-life problems.
Part 5: Riya’s Repeated Subtraction
One sunny afternoon, the little gnome’s sister, Riya, was playing with some counters. She had 20 counters and wanted to share them equally with her 4 friends. But Riya didn’t know how to divide the counters, so she decided to use a method called repeated subtraction.
Riya began by subtracting 5 counters at a time, because she wanted to give each friend 5 counters. She counted the steps carefully, making sure to subtract the same number each time:
First, Riya took away 5 counters from the 20. She had 15 left.
Next, she took away another 5 counters. Now, there were 10 left.
Then, she took away 5 more counters, leaving her with 5.
Finally, she took away the last 5 counters, and she had none left.
Riya counted the number of steps she took: 4 steps in total. She was excited! She had divided the 20 counters into 4 equal groups, with 5 counters in each group.
In math, we can also express this as a division problem: 20 ÷ 5 = 4
Part 6: Division using the Number Line
One bright afternoon, Riya and her 2 friends decided to play a game on a number line. They started at 15, and the goal was to jump all the way to 0 in equal steps. Each jump represented taking away 5, just like in division.
“Let’s see how many jumps it takes to get to 0 if we move 5 steps at a time!” Riya said excitedly.
They drew a number line on the ground, marking the numbers from 15 down to 0. Then, one by one, they began jumping:
1. First jump: Riya jumped from 15 to 10, subtracting 5.
2. Second jump: Her friend Mia jumped from 10 to 5.
3. Third jump: Finally, Noah Jumped from 5 to 0
They counted the jumps together: “1, 2, 3!”
“So, dividing 15 by 5 gives us 3,” Riya explained, pointing to the number line.
In math terms, they had shown:
15 ÷ 5 = 3
“Jumping on the number line is so much fun!” Mia laughed. “And now, we know how division works too!”
The friends cheered, happy with their game, and drew more number lines to try different division problems together.
Want Even More Practice?
Here’s where the magic continues: I’ve created an interactive Google Slides game that pairs perfectly with this story. Your students will practice dividing objects into groups, writing the related division sentences, division using array, repeated subtraction and array.
Both story and google slides are free to download at my store. Additional practice worksheets are available in my store.
