These exercises and activities are for students to use independently of the teacher to practice and develop their number properties.
add and subtract fractions with the same denominator
convert fractions (tenths) to decimals
find fractions of a quantity
Proportions and Ratios, AA (Stage 6)
Prior knowledge.
- Explain why 10/10 is another name for one whole
- Identify mixed numbers and explain how they relate to improper fractions
- Find fractions of a quantity
Background
In this activity students make the connection between tenths written as a fraction and written as a decimal. Students add together tenths, and find tenths of a set for example 7/10 of 20.
Comments on the Exercises
Exercise 1: Adding tenths
Asks students to solve word problems that involve adding tenths. For example, 7/10 + 1/10. With the exception of the last 2 problems, in this exercise the answers are less than one, and as the questions require students to convert their answers to decimals, simplification of the fractions is not required, but could be discussed as another way of ‘tidying up’ the numbers.
Exercise 2: Adding tenths
Asks students to solve word problems that involve adding tenths. For example, 7/10 + 5/10. It also includes adding mixed fraction. In this exercise, all of the answers are greater than one. Question 7 and beyond represent a slight change in the pattern. Here each rooster is eating more than one worm, so the answers can be sorted by ‘adding like to like’, that is adding the whole numbers and the fractional parts separately.
Exercise 3: Adding and subtracting tenths. Finding “tenths of …”
Asks students to combine the skills of adding fractions to one whole and finding the fraction of an amount. In the last problem, Tim and Ted are equally sharing nine tenths, meaning they get four and a half tenths each. Discussing how to write such fractions should be covered either before the exercise is sat, or afterwards as a debrief, where the students are asked to explain how they met this challenge. Going back to materials (decimats are a good resource here) to display (4/2)/10 and sorting out why it equals 9/20 is useful.
Exercise 4: Finding tenths of coins/working with money.
Asks students to not only work out fractions of an amount, but also work out how much money that have with this number of coins