Here is a chocolate bar, a long strip we can split along its length. Now picture a tub of twelve counters beside it, a pile we can share out. They are very different things, but here is a question for both of them: what would one half of each one look like?

Each strip on the board is a length cut into equal parts, with one or more parts shaded to show a fraction. Look at how each strip is split into equal parts, and look for where the shaded parts line up.

We have seen a fraction of a length on the strips. Now let us see a fraction of a shape together on the board.

Now we work with sets of counters — a set of counters just means a group of counters. Each table has twelve counters. When I name a fraction, one pupil shares the counters at the board while the rest of us count along and predict how many will land in one group.

Today we work through finding fractions of sets together at the board. Here are our four rounds:

• One half of 6 counters
• One half of 10 counters
• One quarter of 8 counters
• One third of 9 counters

What we learned today

• A fraction can name a part of a shape, a part of a length or a part of a set of objects.
• Every time, we split the whole into equal parts and look at one of them.
• One half of a set means sharing into two equal groups and taking one group.

Coming up