In this activity, students recall what they know about division from IM Grade 3. The context allows students to connect lived experiences to the math of the activity. By inviting students to consider treats that they enjoy in their homes or neighborhoods, they share experiences and foster connections that build community.

The first question gives students an opportunity to co-craft mathematical questions based on a situation before answering a question based on a division equation. Students divide a two-digit number by a one-digit divisor, as they did in IM Grade 3, in a way that makes sense to them. The Activity Synthesis highlights different representations students made and relates them to the situation. The terms dividend and divisor are re-introduced in this lesson to describe a number being divided into equal groups and a number by which another number (the dividend) is divided, respectively. Another term familiar to students is quotient, the result of a division expression.

This activity uses MLR5 Co-craft Questions. Advances: writing, reading, representing

• Display two questions that students wrote for the equation  .
• “What does the 84 represent in both problems?” (The amount being divided into equal groups.) 
• “In mathematics, the number being divided is known as the dividend, and the number by which the dividend is divided is known as the divisor. The result of the division is known as the quotient.”
• Invite students to share their strategies for the last question. Highlight strategies that show equal-size groups and reasoning that relates multiplication and division.

The purpose of this activity is for students to continue to use any representation or strategy to solve division problems with two- and three-digit dividends. They solve one problem that asks how many in each equal group and another that asks how many equal groups.

• “How are the questions in the two situations—gulab jamuns and breadsticks—alike?” (They involved division into equal groups.)
• “How are they different?” (The first looks for the number of groups. The second looks for the size of a group.)
• Invite students to share their response for the second problem.
• “What is the same about each of these methods? What is different?”