Before the chunking process is explained, you should know that children must know their times tables by heart! Otherwise, any written division takes a lot longer to complete.

When using chunking, the number being divided by (divisor) is continually taken away from the larger number until zero is reached (or a number less in value than the divisor is reached as a remainder).

Example 1: 36 ÷ 6

Repeated Subtraction:

Keep taking 6 away.

6 /
6 / 3 / 6
- / 6 / (X1)
3 / 0
- / 6 / (X1)
2 / 4
- / 6 / (X1)
1 / 8
- / 6 / (X1)
1 / 2
- / 6 / (X1)
6
- / 6 / (X1)
0

This example was a very simple calculation that can be done mentally.

Chunking is useful for harder division calculations.


Using x10

When using chunking with more challenging calculations, multiplying the divisor by 10 is useful.

Example 2: 362 ÷ 14

2 / 5 / r / 12
1 / 4 / 3 / 6 / 2
- / 1 / 4 / 0 / (x10)
2 / 2 / 2
- / 1 / 4 / 0 / (x10)
8 / 2
- / 7 / 0 / (x5)
1 / 2

Example 3: 678 ÷ 18

/ / 4 / 2 / r / 2
1 / 8 / 6 / 7 / 8
- / 1 / 8 / 0 / (x10)
4 / 9 / 8
- / 1 / 8 / 0 / (x10)
3 / 1 / 8
- / 1 / 4 / 0 / (x10)
1 / 7 / 8
- / 1 / 4 / 0 / (x10)
3 / 8
- / 3 / 6 / (x2)
2

Always remember to put the brackets in, for they make up the answer to the calculation!