NS6-6 Models of Fractions

Pages 30–31

STANDARDS Goals
preparation for 6.NS.A.1,
6.NS.B.2, 6.NS.B.3, Students will understand fractions as equal parts of a whole and will
6.NS.C.6, 6.NS.C.7 learn that the whole can be a set.

PRIOR KNOWLEDGE REQUIRED

Vocabulary None
denominator
fraction MATERIALS
numerator
ordinal numbers A banana or other piece of food (see below)
part Two-colored counters (or coins with heads and tails as the two “colors”)
whole OR a geoboard and an elastic for each student

Fractions refer to equal parts. Bring a banana (or some easily broken piece
of food) to class. Break it in two very unequal pieces. SAY: This is one of two
pieces. Is this half the banana? Why not? Emphasize that the parts have to
be equal for either of the two pieces to be a half.

Introduce fraction notation. Tell students that we use fractions to name a

part of a whole. Fractions have two numbers: a top number and a bottom
number. The bottom number, the denominator, tells you how many equal
parts are in the whole. The top number, the numerator, tells you how many
equal parts are in the part that you are naming. Write several fractions on the
board, and have students signal the numerator or denominator.

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Naming fractions. Do part a) below together as a class, then have students
do the remaining parts. Exercises: Name the fraction shaded.
a) b) c)

Answers: a) 3/4, b) 2/6, c) 7/9

Exercise: Which diagram has 1/4 shaded? What’s wrong with the other
diagrams?

A. B. C. D.

Answer: A has 1/4 shaded, B doesn’t have equal parts, C has five parts
instead of four, D has two shaded parts, not one.

Bonus: Extend the lines to make equal parts. What fraction is shaded?
a) b) c)

Answers: a) 3/8, b) 5/8, c) 1/4

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 The equal parts of a fraction don’t need to have the same shape, only
equal area. Draw the two shapes shown in the margin on the board.
ASK: How many equal parts are in the left shape? (four) How many equal
parts are in the right shape? (four) What fraction of each shape is shaded
(one fourth) Do they have the same shaded shape? (no) Do they have the
same fraction shaded? (yes) Why? (because in each case the shaded part
is one of four equal pieces)
Exercise: What fraction of the figure in the margin is covered by…
a) the shaded triangle? b) the small square?
Tell students that you know someone who had a square piece of banana
bread, cut it in half to make two equal pieces, and then cut both those pieces
in half to make four equal pieces. Have volunteers suggest ways this could
have been done, by drawing on the board, then display the picture shown
in the margin to show how the cutting was actually done. ASK: Did all four
people get the same size piece? (yes, each piece is four grid squares)
Exercise: Draw a rectangle. Divide it into thirds in as many different ways
as you can. Bonus: Repeat for quarters.
Finding the whole from a part. Tell students that the rectangle shown is 3/5
of a full rectangle and have a volunteer finish the full rectangle, using a ruler
or meter stick to measure each part. (For part c), the volunteer will first need
to break the rectangle into three equal parts.)
a) b) c)
Then have students draw any rectangle that is 4/5 of a whole rectangle (tell
students to make the rectangle’s length less than half the width of the sheet
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or paper) and then exchange with a partner to draw the full rectangle.
Reading fraction names using ordinal numbers. Point out the connection
between how we say fractions and ordinal, or position, numbers: fractions
contain ordinal numbers. Examples: one-fifth, two-fifths, three-fifths, four-fifths.
The only exception is that we don’t say “one-second” for 1/2; we say “one-half.”
You can take a fraction of a set. Tell students that a whole can be a group
of people, such as the students in your class. ASK: What fraction of students
in our class are girls? Tell students that every student is an equal part of the
set, so they can find the fraction of students who are girls by counting the
number of girls (this will be the numerator) and the total number of students
(this will be the denominator). Find this fraction together.
Fractions of sets of shapes. Draw the shapes shown in the margin on the
board. Exercises:
a) What fraction of the shapes are ...
i) shaded? ii) squares? iii) triangles?
b) What fraction of the triangles are shaded?
c) What fraction of the squares are shaded?
Answers: a) i) 4/5, ii) 3/5, iii) 2/5; b) 1/2; c) 3/3 = 1, or all of them

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 Exercises
a) What fraction of each set of triangles shown in the margin are big
triangles? What fraction are small triangles?
A.
b) What fraction of the small triangles in set B are shaded?
B. Bonus: Ask questions about a set of shapes with three attributes that vary
(shape, size, and color; see sample set in margin). Example: What fraction
Bonus of the big squares are white?
Events as parts of a set. Point out that events can be parts of a set too.
ASK: A basketball team played 5 games and won 2 of them. What fraction
of the games did the team win? (2/5)
Exercises
a) A team won 3 games and lost 1 game. How many games did the team
play altogether? What fraction of their games did they win?
b) A team won 4 games, lost 1 game, and tied 2 games. How many games
did the team play altogether? What fraction of their games did they win?
What fraction of their games did they not lose?
Ensure that students understand they must first determine the total number
of members of a set before they can find the fraction made by any part.
Complementary parts of a set. The activity below will guide students to
discover how to find the fraction a part represents given the fraction that the
rest of the set (its complement) represents.

ACTIVITY
Have students “shake and spill” a number of two-colored counters (or

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coins, using heads and tails as the two “colors”), and ask students to
name the fraction that represents the red counters. Then ASK: What
fraction represents the yellow counters? What do the two numerators
add to? Why? Alternatively, use a geoboard, and have students enclose
a given fraction of the pegs with an elastic and name the fraction of the
pegs that is not enclosed.

Extensions
1. Draw a 4-by-4 square on grid paper. Color half the square in as many
ways as you can. One way is shown in the margin.
2. Use grid paper to draw a 45° angle. Then draw the whole angle if that
angle is a) 1/2 of the whole angle, or b) 1/3 of the whole angle.
3. What word do you get when you combine …
a) the first 2/3 of sun and the first 1/2 of person? (super)
b) the first 1/2 of grease and the first 1/2 of ends? (green)
c) the first 1/2 of wood and the last 2/3 of arm? (worm)
Try making up your own such questions.

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 4. On BLM How Much Is Shaded? (p. C-93), students choose between
inches and centimeters to divide a strip into equal parts, and then
determine what fraction is shaded. Tell students to use whichever unit
will make it easier to write the fraction (in all cases, the shaded part and
the whole are a whole number of units). Two strips have the same fraction
but different amounts shaded, to emphasize the importance of using the
same whole to compare fractions.

5. Contrast fractions of a set with fractions of an area. What fraction of the

pizza is cut into bigger pieces? (1/2) What fraction of the pieces are big?
(2/5) Tell students that what you are taking the fraction of—the pizza itself
or the set of pieces—tells you how to take the fraction. All the pieces are
equal parts of the set of pieces, but they are not equal parts of the pizza.
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