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FUN WITH FRACTIONS

Fractions are a concept that not only adults, but children often use every day. We apply our knowledge of fractions to practical areas of maths, such as length, time, money and weight. Children also start to apply their fraction knowledge in these everyday situations, and those with siblings become very quick to recognise when something has been divided fairly into equal parts. 

 

Despite our everyday familiarity with fractions, it can still be seen as a more ‘scary’ or ‘difficult’ concept. This can happen for a number of reasons, such as the same fraction can look different when placed into different contexts. For example, is ½, asking for ½ of one, ½ of the bananas, ½ a kilometre? Each fraction also represents its own number system. ¾ is three parts of four, while ⅘ is four parts of five. These numbers are harder to compare because they each have different size parts they are using. 

 

In Term 3, the Year Ones, Year Twos and the Year Five/Sixes have been investigating fractions. The progression ranges from in Junior School, exploring halves, to quarters and eighths to in our Senior School, where students add and subtract fractions, investigate fractions with related denominators and connect fractions to decimals and percentages. In Term 4 the Year Three/Four students will explore concepts including fractions on a number line, multiples of fractions, and finding equivalent fractions. 

 

There are lots of ways that you can help reinforce fractions at home using age appropriate strategies. For example: 

  • Practising sharing objects between fractions: 
    • Would you like your sandwich cut into halves or quarters? 
    • How can we cut this cake so everybody will get an equal piece? 
  • Practising sharing collections between groups: 
    • Can we share the strawberries into thirds? 
    • Let’s grab two juice boxes from the packet - what fraction did we grab? 
  • Naming fractions when you see or use them: 
    • Let’s go for a walk ½ way around the lake and back 
    • What fraction is each piece of our pizza and did they do a good job of making sure each part was equal? 
  • Manipulating fractions: 
    • Double or halve a favourite family recipe 
  • Visualising fractions: 
    • What’s bigger ⅕ or ⅓? Imagine a pizza - would you rather share it between five people and get one piece, or between three people? 
    • Think about eating ⅞ of a cake - have you eaten closest to 0, ½ or the whole cake? 
  • Using travel time when driving, public transporting or walking to investigate fractions: 
    • The house number is 20. What would ¾ of 20 be? 
    • Out of the next 10 cars we see, what fraction do you think will be red? 

Melanie Davis 

Grade 2 Teacher | Learning Specialist 

 

FRACTIONS IN YEAR 1:

 

FRACTIONS IN YEAR 2:

 

FRACTIONS IN YEAR 5/6: