Arithmetic Mean Numbers for Kids

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The Fair Share Number 🍬

Imagine you're sharing candy with friends. The mean is like making sure everyone gets the same amount!

🍬 Candy Example

Let's say you have three friends:

  • Tommy has 2 candies 🍬🍬
  • Sarah has 4 candies 🍬🍬🍬🍬
  • You have 6 candies 🍬🍬🍬🍬🍬🍬

See how the candies stack up:

🍬 🍬

Tommy

2 candies

🍬 🍬 🍬 🍬

Sarah

4 candies

🍬 🍬 🍬 🍬 🍬 🍬

You

6 candies

Mean = 4 candies

To find the fair share (mean):

  1. Add all candies: 2 + 4 + 6 = 12 candies total
  2. Share equally between 3 friends: 12 ÷ 3 = 4
  3. The mean is 4 - everyone gets 4 candies! 🍬🍬🍬🍬

After sharing equally:

🍬 🍬 🍬 🍬

Tommy

4 candies

🍬 🍬 🍬 🍬

Sarah

4 candies

🍬 🍬 🍬 🍬

You

4 candies

⭐⭐

Sports and Numbers 🏀

A basketball player's points in the last 5 games:

  • Game 1: 12 points
  • Game 2: 18 points
  • Game 3: 15 points
  • Game 4: 21 points
  • Game 5: 24 points

Calculate the player's average points per game:

  1. Add all points: 12 + 18 + 15 + 21 + 24 = 90 points total
  2. Divide by number of games: 90 ÷ 5 = 18
  3. The mean is 18 points per game!

Here's how the scores look:

The red line shows the average score per game.

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Real World Math 📱

The mean helps us find a central value that represents a whole group of numbers. It's super useful in real life!

📱 Screen Time Example

Let's track your daily screen time for a week:

  • Monday: 2 hours
  • Tuesday: 1.5 hours
  • Wednesday: 3 hours
  • Thursday: 2 hours
  • Friday: 3.5 hours
  • Saturday: 4 hours
  • Sunday: 4 hours

Finding your average daily screen time:

  1. Add all hours: 2 + 1.5 + 3 + 2 + 3.5 + 4 + 4 = 20 hours total
  2. Divide by number of days: 20 ÷ 7 = 2.86 hours
  3. Your mean screen time is about 2.9 hours per day!

Let's see this on a chart:

The red line shows your average daily screen time.

Fun Facts About Mean

Try It Yourself!

Ready to find some means? Click the button below to use our calculator:

Go to Mean Calculator