All Activities
Maths

Make Equal Groups

Overview

Children share objects into equal groups and check fairness.

Learning Objective
Children create equal groups and understand sharing.

Resources needed

  • Small objects (stones, counters, sticks)

Lesson stages

0 / 7 done
  1. 1 Give a number of objects (e.g. 10).
  2. 2 Ask children to share them into 2 groups.
  3. 3 Check if both groups are equal.
  4. 4 Ask: 'Is this fair? How do you know?'
  5. 5 Adjust if needed.
  6. 6 Try with different numbers and group sizes.
  7. 7 Discuss what happens when numbers do not divide equally.

Tap a step to mark it as done.

Variations

  • Use more groups (e.g. 3 or 4)
  • Try numbers with remainders
  • Let children choose group sizes
More information

Connect to fairness — a concept children understand emotionally before mathematically.

Use only numbers that divide evenly before introducing remainders.

Do children distribute one at a time or in larger chunks? How do they respond to a remainder?

Stones, seeds, or any small uniform objects work. Draw circles in soil to define each group area so children have a visual target.

When distributing, children often give several objects to one group before moving on, rather than distributing one at a time. This leads to unequal groups. Model the one-at-a-time method explicitly.

Activity details
Early Years Medium 15–20 minutes No prep Small Group Indoor & Outdoor
Topics
Grouping Sharing