Children learn about the importance of sharing fairly from a young age – but do they realise that sharing is closely related to division? Can the children use number and reasoning skills to help the animals with a sticky problem? By Antonia Peters.

After the rain had fallen and the animals had quenched their thirst, Stag Deer called another important meeting at Woodland Pool. Stag Deer knew that a drought could happen again in the future – and wanted to put a plan into place so that the animals were better prepared next time. If they ever needed to ration the water in the pool they must know how to do so as fairly as possible. Can your class help to solve the problem?