Mathematics 

Fractions

When it comes to teaching maths at home, it’s fractions your kids and you, will probably struggle with the most. With words like numerator, improper, vinculum and others making their into your child's vocabulary, sometimes even the number of terms relating to fractions for kids can all seem a little overwhelming for parents.

Knowing how to teach your child fractions at home can just be difficult. Here are some ideas to help you with just that.

What is a fraction?

Fractions are used to represent smaller pieces (or parts) of a whole.

The parts might make up one thing, or more than one thing. Either way, altogether, they make up what’s called a whole.

It’s important to note that a whole can mean more than one thing. It’s useful to think of a lolly shop as an analogy. For sharing a singular whole amount, you can think of a chocolate bar, a cake bar, or muffin. For grouping an amount into fractional parts, you can imagine a bag of lollies – there are lots of lollies in the bag, but you need all of them to make up the whole bag.

What are the parts of a fraction?

A fraction has three parts. They are:

The numerator which is the number above the bar.

The denominator which is the number below the bar.

The vinculum which is the bar separating the two numbers.

Build fractions with play dough

Sort sticky notes

Noodle around with fractions

Build excitement with LEGO fraction games and activities

Here is Stage 2 working with fractions in class.