Begin your math unit on division with hands-on activities that will help your students visualize division. One activity could be to give each student several small pieces of wrapped candies and ask them to divide the whole into equal groups. For example, instruct students to divide ten candies into two groups of five. Demonstrate to them by counting aloud one at a time until you have five pieces of candy. Take those five pieces of candy and set them on one side of the desk. Then count out the remaining pieces of candy and move them to the other side of the desk. Explain that this is dividing 10 by 5 which equals -- and then let them say -- "2."
Use other manipulatives. Another way to make division fun is to give each student 20 buttons. Then have them divide the buttons on their desks into 4 equal piles and then 5 equal piles, etc. This helps them visualize the results of dividing.
Teach division terminology. Numbers in division problems have specific names. The "dividend" is the number in the problem being divided and is usually the number with the greatest value. The "divisor" is the number the dividend is divided by in the problem. The "quotient" is the answer to a division problem -- the number of times the divisor goes into the dividend. Using the candy example, tell students that 10 -- the number of candies -- is the "dividend." The number you counted to when dividing the candies -- 5 -- is called the "divisor." Finally, the answer that they all spoke aloud -- 2 -- is the "quotient."