Purpose:
- To develop children’s understanding of fraction sizes when 1 is the numerator (on top).
You need:
- Dough (dough recipe PDF, 61KB)
- A plastic knife
- Fraction cards (PDF, 39KB)
Activity :
- Give each child three equal sized pieces of dough.
- The children roll each one into a ball and place them in a row.
- Ask the children to take the first ball and cut it into two equal pieces.
- Have a discussion with the children about what they have done, that is they have taken a whole piece and cut it into halves. Each half is the same size and if they are put back together they make a whole ball.
- Put the correct fraction name next to these pieces (1/2).
- Repeat this with the next ball of dough but cut this one into three equal pieces and label them correctly (1/3).
- Repeat with last ball and cut into four equal pieces and label again (1/4).
- Talk about which is bigger, 1/2 or 1/3 or 1/4.
- Keep talking about two halves make a whole, three thirds make a whole and four quarters (fourths) make a whole.
- Get the children to lay the fraction cards out and order them from smallest to biggest or biggest to smallest and discuss their reasons for putting the fractions in this order.