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Fractions
Objectives
To find halves and quarters of amounts.
Resources
Abacus Workbook 2 | Counters | 📄 Design A Flag | 📄 Design Your Own Flags
Vocabulary
half | quarter | fraction
Today's Lesson
Introduction
Place 16 counters on the table, arranged as a 4 x 4 array.
Agree that there are 16 objects.
Ask:
- What is half of 16?
Some students may be able to use number facts to halve 16, but also model sharing out 16 counters into two groups to find that half of 16 is 8.
Ask:
- What is a quarter of 16?
Now share 16 counters into four groups to find that a quarter of 16 is 4. Note that finding a quarter is the same as finding half of a half. Explain that half of 16 is 8, and half of 8 is 4. So, 4 is a quarter of 16.
Show Sheet 1 from the 📄 Design A Flag resource to your student. Agree that there are 24 squares on the flag.
Ask:
- How can we work out half of 24?
Some students may use number facts to do this. Also, model sharing 24 counters into two groups to find that half of 24 is 12.
Display Sheet 2 from the same resource (the flag of the city of Metz in France).
Ask:
- Is half of this flag shaded black?
Ask your student to count the squares to be sure.
Display Sheet 3 (the state flag of Pahang in Indonesia).
Ask:
- Is half of this flag shaded black?
Display Sheet 4 (like the chequered motor racing ‘Finish’ flag). Use this more elaborate pattern to show that shaded squares do not have to be in a single ‘block’ to represent \frac{1}{2}.
Finally, display Sheet 5 (this is a made-up design).
Ask:
- What fraction of this flag is shaded?
Agree that \frac{1}{4}of 24 is 6. Model this as necessary, by sharing 24 counters into four groups.
What if 6 squares are shaded like this (show Sheet 6)?
Ask:
- Is this still
\frac{1}{4}shaded? (Yes)
Main Activity
Your student should use the 📄 Design Your Own Flags Sheet 1 templates to design different flags, demonstrating their unders
tanding of halves and quarters of amounts.
Each flag is divided into a different number of squares to make sure they do a different calculation to find \frac{1}{2} or \frac{1}{4} each time.
Ask:
- Have you counted the number of squares carefully, so that you share the number fairly into halves or quarters?
Your student should write captions for their flags.
For example:
\frac{1}{2} of 28 is 14
\frac{1}{4} of 16 is 4.
Workbook
To help your student consolidate their learning from today, please ask them to complete the activities on page 36 of Abacus Workbook 2.