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Fractions
Objectives
To finding \begin{matrix}\frac{1}{2}\end{matrix}, \begin{matrix}\frac{1}{4}\end{matrix}and \begin{matrix}\frac{1}{3}\end{matrix}of amounts by sharing.
Resources
Abacus Workbook 3 | Cubes | Bag | 📄 Matching fractions | 📄 Finding fractions of numbers | 📄 Fractions cards
Vocabulary
fraction | half | quarter | third
Today's Lesson
What to Get Ready
Cut out the 📄 Fractions cards, if needed, for Extra Support.
Consolidate
Access 📄 Matching fractions and ask your student to reflect on this step’s learning by matching the visual fractions to their written fractions.
Refrain from supporting them too much here, especially at first. It will provide useful assessment information as you observe how well they approach and complete the task.
Introduction
Count out 10 cubes together and place them in a bag.
Say: ‘I have 10 sweets. I am feeling very generous today and want to give you half of them. How many will you get?’
Give your student time to try to work this out using cubes to represent the sweets. Ask them to explain as they work this out.
Say: ‘We could share out 10 into 2 piles or just know that half of 10 is 5!’
Repeat, with 8 cubes.
Explain: ‘I’m not feeling quite so generous now and I’m only going to give you \begin{matrix}\frac{1}{4}\end{matrix}of my sweets.
Ask your student to work out how many this will be using 8 cubes. Help them to recognise that they will need to share the cubes into 4 piles instead of 2. A familiar diagram might help them to imagine quarters.
For example:
This video demonstrates sharing sweets/objects to help understand fractions.
Repeat with 12 sweets, explaining, ‘This time I am going to give you \begin{matrix}\frac{1}{3}\end{matrix}(one third) of my 12 sweets.
They should then work out how many this will be using 12 cubes. Help them to recognise that they will need to share the cubes into 3 piles instead of 2 or 4.
Repeat with other amounts of sweets and ask them to find either \begin{matrix}\frac{1}{2}\end{matrix}, \begin{matrix}\frac{1}{4}\end{matrix}or \begin{matrix}\frac{1}{3}\end{matrix}.
Model how to record answers, for example: \begin{matrix}\frac{1}{2}\end{matrix}of 6 = 3.
They should record their answers on paper.
Stress that when finding these fractions, each half is the same number, each quarter is the same number and each third is the same number.
Main Activity
Ask your student to complete 📄 Finding fractions of numbers using cubes to help them. Encourage them to look at the bottom number of the fraction, as this tells you how many groups to split the cubes into. The answer is then how many cubes are in one of the groups.
Extra Challenge
Shuffle up the 📄 Fractions cards and ask your student to pick a card. They should use cubes to solve the fraction problem on each card.
Or they might like to draw the problem on paper.
For example, to find \begin{matrix}\frac{1}{4}\end{matrix} of 12 bananas, draw four hoops and draw a banana in each hoop in turn, until all 12 have been drawn. The answer is the amount in just one hoop.
Workbook
To help your student consolidate their learning from today, please ask them to complete the activities on page 23 of Abacus Workbook 3.