Basic Division Song (With Repeated Subtraction)

Numberock's Basic Division Song is guaranteed to pump up everyone on your stacked 3rd Grade roster (from the starting five to the bench warmers) while showing them useful division strategies like visualizing division as repeated subtraction and/or seeing division as splitting up a set of objects into equal groups.

So whether your students are captains of the soccer team, like Ben, or like Tanya, are a master in the realm of all things math-letic, this song's upbeat vibe and ridiculously catchy tune is a major win for everyone in your classroom.

Grades Targeted | 2nd - 3rd Grade

Basic Division Song Lyrics

Verse One
I was practicing my aim
before the basketball game,
with three groups of two basketballs -
six basketballs in all.

Took two shots - got nothing but net -
then two more... and two more, yet!
Now zero balls are left - that’s the difference -
and we can show this as a division sentence.

Six HAS HOW MANY GROUPS of two basketballs?
We see three equal groups in all;
so we call the three groups the quotient,
two the divisor, and then six the dividend.

Chorus
The number divided is the dividend.
The divisor divides, so that in the end,
we’ll find the number of groups - that’s the quotient.
We can think of division as repeated subtraction

Verse Two
I was practicing my aim
before the soccer game -
four groups of three soccer balls,
twelve soccer balls in all.

I got the first group of three in the net -
then again, and again, and again, it was a perfect set!
Now zero balls are left - that’s the difference -
and we can show all this as a division sentence.
Twelve HAS HOW MANY GROUPS of three soccer balls?
We see four equal groups in all;
so we call four groups the quotient,
three the divisor, and then twelve the dividend.

Bridge
There are two types of problems when we divide:
we’re either finding the number of groups, or the group size.
If we look at the basketballs we could find three groups of two;
or we could find two balls in three groups, which is equally true.

Learn More

Who couldn't use a list of 30 unique division activities that can help your students better conceptualize what's actually happening when they are practicing division? Check out this thorough list of division activities by We Are Teachers (courtesy of Jill Staake), which might give you an idea or two that extends beyond Numberock's song and associated lesson resources.

For those that care about this stuff, the song you just watched aligns to the 3rd Grade Common Core learning standards 3.OA.2, 3.OA.4, & 3.OA.6. Check out the full spectrum of 3rd Grade Operations & Algebraic Thinking learning standards. Because let's be honest, who doesn't love reading math standards in their leisure time?

Or continue browsing Numberock's math video content library to discover more engaging math songs. To gain access to Numberock's growing library of premium content, click here.