Story:

Once upon a time in the town of Mathville, there lived a clever boy named Dylan. Dylan loved pizza – and numbers!

One sunny afternoon, he decided to throw a Magic Pizza Party for his 8 best friends.

Dylan’s mum ordered 4 large pizzas, and each pizza was cut into 8 equal slices. Dylan was so excited, that he forgot one little thing…

“How do I make sure everyone gets the same amount of pizza?” Dylan wondered.

So he asked his talking cat, Whiskers, who knew a thing or two about maths.

Whiskers said, “Let’s divide, Dylan! Division means sharing things fairly. First, let’s figure out how many slices we have.”

Dylan counted:

4 pizzas with 8 slices …. 8, 16, 24, 32! That is 32 slices in total!

“There are 8 friends,” Dylan said, “Do I get some too?”

“Of course! There are 9 people altogether, including you!”

So, Whiskers took out his tiny chalkboard and wrote;

32 slices divided by 9 people = ?

Dylan thought hard, “If we share the 32 slices among 9 people, how many slices does each person get?”

Whiskers smiled, “Let’s see!”

He divided;

32 divided by 9 = 3 slices each with 5 slices left over.

“Oh!” Dylan exclaimed. “So everyone gets 3 slices, and we have 5 left. What do we do with those?”

Whiskers purred,”Those are extra! You can give 1 more slice to 5 lucky guests – or maybe save some for later!”

Dylan decided to make a little game to give away the extra slices – whoever could answer a fun maths riddle gets a bonus slice!

Everyone laughed, ate, and had a blast. And Dylan learned that division helps you share fairly and wisely.

The End.

This story was written and created by one of our very own team members – Aiden.

The Maths Behind the Story:

Dylan’s story is an engaging way to introduce the concept of division as sharing equally. It shows children how to take a total quantity and divide it fairly among a group. Using a familiar and relatable context like pizza slices makes the maths meaningful and visual. Children begin to understand how division works, see the connection between numbers and real-life problem-solving, and explore remainders in a playful and non-threatening way.

Seeing Numbers in New Ways:

The story helps children to:

• Understand division as sharing or grouping.
• See how remainders work when something doesn’t divide equally.
• Connect multiplication and division (e.g. 9 groups of 3 = 27 so 32 divided by 9 = 3 with some left over).

This kind of exploration supports flexible mathematical thinking and builds confidence in solving everyday problems.

Extension:

To extend the learning, you might add a twist to the story – perhaps another friend arrives late, or Whiskers decides to save some slices for breakfast! You can ask questions like, “If 2 more people came to the party, how would the slices be shared now?” or “If each person only eats 2 slices, how many are left?” You could even have children make their own pizza slice puzzles to practice sharing and dividing in different ways.

What to Avoid:

Try not to focus too heavily on formal division symbols or algorithms at this stage. Young children may not be ready to interpret “32 divided by 9” symbolically, and that’s okay. Instead, emphasise fair sharing, grouping, and using context to make sense of the numbers. Let children use concrete materials or drawings to explore the ideas themselves. This supports their understanding of division in a way that’s developmentally appropriate and rooted in real experiences.