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Contributor: Elephango Editors. Lesson ID: 12132
Does long division seem to take too long? Do you need to be reminded about remainders? Some online practice and a short long-division song will help you remember the four steps to division success!
The hens on Old MacDonald’s farm laid 452 eggs last month. The farmer needs to divide the eggs into cartons. Each carton has room for four eggs.
Three-digit numbers can seem very large in a division problem.
There is a trick to dividing large numbers. It is called long division. Long division uses place value to divide by hundreds, tens, and ones.
To understand long division, let’s look at Old MacDonald’s problem.
Old MacDonald’s hens laid 452 eggs. Each carton holds 4 eggs. How many cartons of eggs can the farmer sell?
First, we will divide the hundreds place:
| 1 | < | Divide the hundreds by 4: 4 goes into 4 one time. | ||||
| 4 | 4 | 5 | 2 | < | Multiply: 1 x 4 = 4 | |
| - | 4 | < | Subtract: 4 - 4 =0 | |||
| 0 | 5 | < | Bring down the number in the tens place. |
Next, we will divide the tens place:
| 1 | 1 | < | Divide the tens by 4: 4 goes into 5 one time. | |||
| 4 | 4 | 5 | 2 | |||
| - | 4 | |||||
| 0 | 5 | < | Multiply: 1 x 4 = 4 | |||
| - | 4 | < | Subtract: 5 - 4 = 1 | |||
| 1 | 2 | < | Bring down the number in the ones place. |
Last, we will divide the ones place:
| 1 | 1 | 3 | < | Divide the ones by 4: 4 goes into 12 three times. | ||
| 4 | 4 | 5 | 2 | |||
| - | 4 | |||||
| 0 | 5 | |||||
| - | 4 | |||||
| 1 | 2 | |||||
| - | 1 | 2 | < | Multiply: 3 x 4 = 12 | ||
| 0 | < | Subtract: 12 - 12 = 0 |
Old MacDonald will have 113 cartons of eggs to sell.
Sometimes, you can't divide the number in the hundreds place into the divisor.
Let's look at an example: 325 ÷ 6.
6 does not go into 3. So combine the 3 in the hundreds place with the 2 in the tens place:
| 5 | < | Divide 32 by 6: 6 goes into 32 five times. | ||||
| 6 | 3 | 2 | 5 | < | Multiply: 5 x 6 = 30 | |
| - | 3 | 0 | < | Subtract: 32 - 30 = 2 | ||
| 2 | 5 | < | Bring down the number in the ones place. |
Then, divide the ones place:
| 5 | 4 | < | Divide 25 by 6: 6 goes into 25 four times. | |||
| 6 | 3 | 2 | 5 | |||
| - | 3 | 0 | ||||
| 2 | 5 | |||||
| - | 2 | 4 | < | Multiply: 4 x 6 = 24 | ||
| 1 | < | Subtract: 25 - 24 = 1 |
So, the quotient is 54 with a remainder of 1.
To review long division, listen to The Long Division Song | Long Division Steps | Long Division Song for Kids | Silly School Songs (below). Listen to the song two or three times until you can sing along.
After you have listened to the song a few times, see if you can remember the steps of a long division problem. Write down the four steps on a piece of paper. If you forget any of the steps, replay the video to help you remember:
Use the four steps of long division in the Got It? section to solve the practice problems!
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