Look at this chocolate bar and this tub of twelve counters. The bar is a long strip we can split along its length, and the counters are 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?
Hands up: how would you split the chocolate bar to find one half? And how would you split the counters?
Show on the IWB a chocolate bar as a length (treated as a long strip split along its length) and a tub of twelve counters as a set. Take two or three hands-up answers, not open call-outs. Give five seconds of quiet think-time first.
A real chocolate bar is an optional upgrade if you happen to have one; the projected image runs the hook just as well. Listen for whether pupils talk about equal halves — that is the idea this lesson rests on.
Watch the fraction strips on the board. Each strip is a length cut into equal parts, and we shade one part to show the fraction.
Here a strip is split into two equal pieces and one is shaded. That shaded piece is one half.
Before the next strip, hands up: which do you think is smaller, a half or a quarter?
Now a strip is split into four equal pieces and one is shaded. That shaded piece is one quarter.
The top strip shows one half shaded. The strip right below it is split into four pieces with two shaded — two quarters. Look across: the shaded part of the bottom strip lines up exactly with the shaded part of the top strip, so two quarters covers the same length as one half.
This strip is split into three equal pieces with one shaded — one third.
Walk each strip aloud, one at a time, pointing at the equal parts before the shaded part.
Keep the language on the strip is a length cut into equal parts so the link to lengths is explicit.
We have seen a fraction of a length on the strips. Now let us see a fraction of a shape together on the board.
Here is a rectangle. To find one quarter of it, we split it into four equal parts and shade just one. Watch how the rectangle is divided into four equal pieces first, then one piece is shaded. That shaded piece is one quarter of the whole rectangle.
Draw a rectangle on the IWB and divide it into four equal parts before shading, narrating the equal parts first. Take one hands-up check: how many equal parts before we shade? And how many do we shade for one quarter?
This is the on-screen 'shape' demonstration the title promises, modelled before pupils attempt their own in the copybook moment.
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.
One half of the set, one quarter of the set, one third of the set — every time, we make equal groups and look at just one of them.
This round is for talking it through together — pupils take turns at the board and the class agrees or corrects out loud.
Give each table twelve counters. Call a fraction (one half, one quarter, one third of the set). One pupil shares the twelve counters into the matching number of equal groups under the IWB camera; the watching tables predict and then count how many are in one group.
Watch for pupils who count all the groups instead of just one — the fraction is one group, not the whole share. Revoice: so one quarter is just one of the four equal piles.
In your maths copy, draw a rectangle and shade one quarter of it. Then draw a line of eight dots and ring one half of them. Write how many dots are in your half.
Walk the room glancing at two things — that the rectangle is split into four equal parts before one is shaded, and that the ring around the dots holds half of the eight. This is whole-class copybook practice, not marking.
Today we work through finding fractions of sets together at the board. Here are our four rounds:
Each time, share into equal groups and count just one group. We will tick each round off as we finish it.
This round is the practice bank — pupils take turns at the board, check each answer, and the class confirms before moving on. Keep the board work brisk rather than over-explaining. Tick each round off the on-screen list so pupils can see where they are in the sequence.
Real counters circulate; a pupil shares each set into equal groups while the class predicts the count in one group.
The recurring callout: how many equal groups, then how many in one group? Catch the slip of counting all the groups.
How is finding one half of a shape the same as finding one half of a set of counters? What is the same about both, even though one is a strip and one is a pile of counters? Think about this: one half always means splitting into two equal parts and taking one, whether it is a shape, a length or a set.
Listen for pupils naming equal parts as the link — half a strip is one of two equal pieces, half a set is one of two equal groups. Revoice a strong answer: so whether it is a shape, a length or a set, one half always means splitting into two equal parts and taking one.
Head off the idea that a fraction of a set is a different kind of maths from a fraction of a shape — it is the same equal-sharing idea each time.
Next we will name more fractions — fifths, eighths and tenths — and see that the more equal parts we make, the smaller each piece becomes.
Keep this brief. The Pupil Practice page (page 30) follows for paper work at the desks.
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