Printable Mental Division Worksheets
These printable mental division worksheets teach 3rd, 4th and 5th graders to divide in their heads, one trick at a time, with practice on every sheet. Every sheet explains its trick once at the top, then asks your child to write each step, and every sheet has an answer key.
Mental Division Practice Pack. Ready to Print.
Structured, printable skill sheets with step-by-step guidance for Mental Division.
Build My PacketIncluded with Practice Buds MembershipTargeted Practice by Skill
Halving
Divide by 4 and 8 by halving
Divide multiples of 10
Use a basic fact to divide tens and hundreds
Divide by 5: double, then divide by 10
Divide by 5 the quick way
Break apart the number
Divide by splitting the number
Pick the trick
Choose the quickest trick
Divide by 10 or 100 with remainders
Find the quotient and remainder
Compatible numbers: estimate a quotient
Estimate with friendly numbers
Cancel the zeros
Divide tens and hundreds by tens
Pick the trick: all the tricks
Choose from six tricks
About Mental Division
What this skill is
Mental division means using what you already know to make a hard division easy. To divide by 4, halve and halve again: 84 ÷ 4 is 42, then 21. To divide by 5, double the number and divide by 10: 85 ÷ 5 is 170 ÷ 10 = 17. To work out 240 ÷ 6, find 24 ÷ 6 = 4 and put the zero back. Each trick has its own sheet, and the Pick the Trick sheets mix them so your child has to choose which one fits.
When children learn it
In 3rd grade, children use what they know about multiplication to divide within 100 (Common Core 3.OA.C.7). In 4th grade they find whole-number quotients with strategies based on place value and the properties of operations (4.NBT.B.6). In 5th grade, the estimating and zero-cancelling sheets prepare for dividing by two-digit numbers (5.NBT.B.6). Aligned to Common Core.
Teaching Tips
- Say the steps out loud on the first problem. Ask: what is half of 84? And half of that? Hearing the steps in order is what lets a child do them silently later.
- On the Pick the Trick sheets, ask which trick your child would use before they solve it. The letter they write shows you how they are thinking, even when the answer is wrong.
- Check with multiplication. If 240 ÷ 6 = 40, then 40 × 6 should give 240. It takes a few seconds and catches a missing zero.
- Work through the single-trick sheets in order, one a day, and move to the Pick the Trick sheets when your child can name each trick without looking at the box.
Common Mistakes
- Halving only once to divide by 4, so 84 ÷ 4 comes out as 42.
- Putting the wrong number of zeros back. For 3,600 ÷ 9, a child works out 36 ÷ 9 = 4 and writes 40 instead of 400.
- Cancelling an unequal number of zeros. For 2,400 ÷ 60, a child crosses out two zeros from the top and one from the bottom, then divides 24 ÷ 6 = 4 instead of 240 ÷ 6 = 40.
- Forgetting to divide by 10 after doubling. For 85 ÷ 5, a child writes 170.
- Splitting a number into parts that do not divide evenly. For 78 ÷ 3, splitting 78 into 50 + 28 leaves two parts that neither divide by 3.
- Treating an estimate as an exact answer. 347 ÷ 5 is about 70, not exactly 70.