Singapore Math Drills Team · 12 November 2026
Free, distraction-free math drills aligned to the MOE syllabus. No sign-up needed to try.
Bunting swings down across a party sky. A table rises up with a box of 12 cupcakes and two balloons on strings. "It's a sharing party! Can we make equal groups?"
That is Sharing Party, a 30-second Primary 2 episode of our Topic Explainers series. It is made for your child to watch, with short, simple lines on screen and no voice-over. Watch it together first, then read on.
The party has four moments. First, 12 cupcakes hop onto 3 plates, one plate at a time in turn, until each plate has 4. Next, 5 friends get 2 balloons each, and we count the balloons in twos: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10. Then we undo it: the 10 balloons go back into groups of 2, and there are 5 groups. Last, the cupcakes come back, and the same three numbers are read two ways: 3 × 4 = 12 and 12 ÷ 3 = 4.
This is Primary 2 Multiplication and Division in the Singapore syllabus: the tables of 2, 3, 4, 5 and 10, using the ÷ sign, and how multiplication and division are linked.
Multiplication and division are both about equal groups: groups that all have the same number in them. Before any sign is written, your child should be able to look at a picture and say two things: how many groups there are, and how many are in each group.
When we know the number of groups and the size of each group, we multiply to find how many in all.
5 friends with 2 balloons each is 5 groups of 2. In the app we write the number of groups first, so 5 groups of 2 is written 5 × 2. We can find the answer by adding the groups, 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 = 10, or by counting in twos, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10. So 5 × 2 = 10.
Division starts with the total and works backwards. It answers one of two questions.
12 ÷ 3 = 4.10 ÷ 2 = 5.Both use the same sign, ÷, and both start with the whole amount.
The video's last idea is the big one. 3 × 4 = 12 and 12 ÷ 3 = 4 use the same three numbers, 3, 4 and 12. One builds the total up from the groups; the other breaks the total back down into them. If your child knows a multiplication fact, they already know a division fact too.
All the numbers below are the ones in the video, except the try-at-home questions at the end.
Share 12 cupcakes onto 3 plates. How many cupcakes does each plate get?
Step 1: Share one at a time. Put one cupcake on each plate in turn: plate 1, plate 2, plate 3, then plate 1 again. Keep going until all 12 are gone.
Step 2: Count one plate. Each plate has 4 cupcakes.
Answer: 12 ÷ 3 = 4. Each plate gets 4 cupcakes.
Check: 3 plates with 4 on each is 3 groups of 4. 3 × 4 = 12. That is all the cupcakes, with none left over.
Sharing one at a time, the way the video does it, is exactly how young children share things fairly in real life. It always works, even before they know the 3 times table.
5 friends get 2 balloons each. How many balloons are there in all?
Step 1: Name the groups. There are 5 friends, so there are 5 groups. Each group has 2 balloons.
Step 2: Count in twos. 2, 4, 6, 8, 10. Five counts, one for each friend.
Step 3: Write it two ways. As an addition, 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 = 10. As a multiplication, 5 groups of 2 is 5 × 2 = 10.
Answer: there are 10 balloons.
The multiplication is a short way to write the long addition. Five lots of "+ 2" become one "5 × 2".
Now put the 10 balloons back into groups of 2. How many groups are there?
Step 1: Make groups of 2. Take 2 balloons, then 2 more, and so on, until none are left.
Step 2: Count the groups. There are 5 groups.
Answer: 10 ÷ 2 = 5. There are 5 groups of 2.
Check: 5 × 2 = 10. It is the balloon fact from Example 2, read backwards.
Look at the 3 plates of 4 cupcakes. Write a multiplication and a division.
Multiplication: 3 groups of 4 make 12, so 3 × 4 = 12.
Division: 12 shared onto 3 plates gives 4 on each, so 12 ÷ 3 = 4.
The same picture also shows 12 ÷ 4 = 3: 12 cupcakes in groups of 4 make 3 groups. One picture, one family of facts.
- Share 20 stickers equally among 4 children. How many does each child get?
20 ÷ 4 = 5. Each child gets 5 stickers. Check: 4 groups of 5 is 4 × 5 = 20.
- 30 sweets go into bags of 10. How many bags are there?
Count in tens: 10, 20, 30. That is 3 bags, so 30 ÷ 10 = 3. Check: 3 × 10 = 30.
- There are 4 groups of 3 pencils. Write the multiplication and two divisions.
4 × 3 = 12, 12 ÷ 4 = 3 and 12 ÷ 3 = 4.
5 × 2, with the number of groups first. Ask your child to say "groups of" aloud: "5 groups of 2".5 + 2 = 7. Draw the 5 groups and count what is inside them.12 ÷ 3 = 9, as if 3 were taken away. Ask, "Are we taking some away, or sharing all of them?"12 ÷ 3 = 4 is not finished until your child can say "4 cupcakes on each plate". For grouping, the 5 in 10 ÷ 2 = 5 is 5 groups, not 5 balloons.3 × 4 = 12 but starts 12 ÷ 3 from scratch is missing the shortcut. Ask, "Which times fact uses these numbers?"Pairs are groups of 2, so our post on odd and even numbers is a good companion to the balloon scene. For more Primary 2 question types, Primary 2 sample questions explained walks through several of them step by step.
Multiplication and division facts settle in through short, regular practice with real objects and pictures, long before they become quick recall.
That is how we built Singapore Math Drills. Daily Five drills put five hand-picked drill cards in front of your child each day, so they never have to decide what to practise. Practice is calm by design: no guilt-tripping over a missed day and no dark patterns, and your child's progress is only ever measured against their own. Group them. Share them. Same numbers!
Try a free interactive Primary 2 worksheet and see how calm practice feels, with no signup or credit card required.