Here are two fractions: ⅔ and ¾. Hands up: which one do you think is bigger? Be ready to say how you decided. Careful, though, because just looking at the top numbers, or just the bottom numbers, can fool you.

The strips show pairs of fractions, then four at once, drawn on the same whole. We can only compare fairly when the parts are the same size, so look at the fractions renamed to a common denominator. Read off the order by length.

Today we explore: here are three fractions on their strips. Shade each one, then rename them all to a common denominator so the parts are the same size. Once the parts match, line the shaded strips up by length and put the whole set in order from smallest to largest.

Today we work through these sets together: shade and rename each set of four fractions to a common denominator, then put them in order from smallest to largest. Each set is a step trickier than the one before.

What we learned today

• To compare fractions fairly, we rename them to a common denominator so all the parts are the same size.
• The fraction with the longer shaded strip is the bigger one — and that is not always the one with the bigger numbers.
• A bigger denominator usually means a smaller slice, because the whole is shared into more parts.

Coming up