How many groups
Before you read anything
Fifteen stones again. This time take three off the pile and put them aside. Take another three. Keep going until there are none left.
Now count the piles. You did not know that number when you started.
Scooping, watched
Three was given to you again — but as the size, not the number. So this time it is the count that appears.
The other half of dividing
:x nutshell-grouping
Splitting a quantity into groups of a known size. What you are looking for is how many groups there are.
Lesson 6.1 shared fifteen between three and got five. This :grouped fifteen into threes and got five. Same calculation, different question, and $15 \div 3$ means both.
Say it the way that fits
read $42 \div 6$ as "forty-two split six ways"
Otim is not wrong, he is just stuck with one reading. Asked instead how many sixes are in forty-two, he counts sixes and gets there — and that is a question he can answer about numbers he could never share out.
Why this is the half that matters later
Cut a rope into two-metre pieces and you get some number of pieces. Cut the same rope into one-metre pieces and you get more of them, because they got smaller.
Nobody can share something between half a person. Everybody can ask how many halves fit — and in two years that will be the whole of dividing by a fraction.
Check yourself
Six to try
How many $5$s are there in $30$?
$24$ exercise books, with $12$ on every desk. How many desks is that?
$18$ pencils, with $3$ in every box. How many boxes is that?
Musa has $8$ mangoes and puts $2$ in each basket. How many baskets does Musa need?
Ssebba has $56$ sweets and gives $8$ to each child. What is Ssebba trying to find?
$36$ bricks, with $4$ in every barrow. How many barrows is that?
Show that you have it
Smaller pieces, more of them
A rope $20$ metres long is cut into $4$-metre pieces, and there are $5$ of them. Cut into $1$-metre pieces instead, how many are there?
How many $8$s are there in $56$?
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