Use food as a means of introducing the concept of division to third-graders. Divide your class into groups of two or three students. Provide each group with a stack of paper plates and a plate filled with 30 pieces of pasta. Inform children that they are going to use division to evenly share the pieces of pasta. Instruct each child to take a plate and to divide the pieces of pasta onto their plates so that they each have an equal amount. Explain to them that the total number of pasta pieces (30) represents the dividend and the number of people in the group (two or three) represents the divisor. Have them count the amount of pasta pieces on each person's plate and explain that this number represents the quotient. Change the number of plates to alter the divisor and the quotient.
Use a game of bingo to provide your students with division practice. On card stock, create bingo cards for each of your students. Write different numbers on each card; the numbers on the cards will represent the answers to division problems. Write division problems on pieces of scrap paper. Fold the pieces of paper up and place them in a bag or a hat; these will serve as the call cards for the game. Distribute the bingo cards as well as plastic chips or coins, which children will use as markers. Randomly select a call card, state the division problem written on it and if a student has the answer to the problem on her bingo card, she may mark it off with a chip or a coin. The first player to mark a vertical, horizontal or diagonal line wins the game.
On index cards, write a variety of numbers and divide the cards into two piles; one pile will represent the divisor and one pile will represent the dividend. Set the two piles in the center of a table. Have one student at a time take a card from each pile and try to determine the quotient. If the player provides the correct answer, he earns a point; if he's incorrect, the next player may try to solve the division problem depicted on the two cards. The game continues until all of the cards have been used and the player who collects the most points wins.
Have two children stand at the front of the class. State a number, which represents the quotient of a division problem. The first person to provide a correct dividend and divisor to the quotient you stated remains standing while the other student takes his seat. Randomly select another child to go up to the front of the class and continue playing the game in this manner until all students have had a chance to play.