Order unit fractions.
Find equivalent fractions and order fractions.
Number Framework Stages 6 and 7
Paper clips
Small dot stickers
Rolls of adding machine tape
Get the students to cut lengths of the tape 1 metre long, using metre rulers. Ask them to find the one-half, one-quarter, and three-quarters marks on their metre strip by folding or measuring. Ask for their ideas about how to locate these points exactly. Highlight the fact that there are 100 centimetres in 1 metre, and so 50 out of 100 (50/100 ) is another name for one half. Also 25/100 = 1/4,75/100 = 3/4.
Get the students to locate the following fractions on their 1-metre strip:
2/4, 4/4, 1/5, 2/5, 3/5, 4/5, 5/5, ...Disucss how they found each fractions by either folding or measuring. Discuss why 4/4, 5/5, 12/12 ... are all names for 1.
Extension Activity
Ask the students to imagine where the following fractions will be: 1/8, 2/8, 3/8, 4/8, 5/8, 6/8, 7/8, 8/8, 1/3, 2/3, 3/3.
The students then check to find each fraction using a new paper strip and a metre ruler.
Finding eighths by measurement requires the use of millimetres. This requires the students to understand the idea that 10 thousandths of a metre (10 mm) is the same as one-hundredth of a metre (1 cm).
Continue this idea by getting the students to make a 5-metre long strip of tape, and mark the whole number divisions 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 on it. Give each pair of students a set of decimals to put on their number line.
Suitable decimals are: 2.5, 1.75, 4.99, 1.46, 3.5, 2.793, 3.333, 0.079 ...