Divide Unit Fractions & Whole Numbers

How the lesson starts: Divide Unit Fractions & Whole Numbers

Sam's smoothie cart
Sam runs a smoothie cart! She has 2 cups of mango smoothie, and each tasting cup holds 1/3 of a cup. How many tasting cups can she fill? Later, she'll split a tiny bit among friends. Let's learn fraction division!
How many fit?
How many thirds fit in 2? Hop by 1/3. One, two, three hops make one whole. Four, five, six hops make two. So 2 ÷ 1/3 = 6 tasting cups! Each whole holds 3 thirds, so 2 × 3 = 6.
Split a tiny bit
Now the other way. Sam has 1/3 cup left, and 4 friends share it. Cut the 1/3 into 4 equal pieces. 12 of those pieces would fill a whole cup. So 1/3 ÷ 4 = 1/12. Watch out: 1/3 ÷ 4 splits it smaller, it doesn't make 12!